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Genres of Underemployment: A Dialogical Analysis of College Graduate Underemployment

Joseph Cunningham1

1) Learning Assitance Center, University of Cincinnati, United States.

Date of publication: February 28th, 2016 Edition period: October 2015 - February 2016

To cite this article: Cunningham, J. (2016). Genres of Underemployment: A Dialogical Analysis of College Graduate Underemployment. Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1), 1-24. doi:10.17583/qre.2016.1393

To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/qre.2016.1393

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 1-24

Genres of Underemployment: A Dialogical Analysis of College Graduate Underemployment

Joseph Cunningham University of Cincinnati

(Received: 21 January 2015; Accepted: 28 September 2015; Published: 28 February 2016)

Abstract With more individuals obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees and the job market still recovering from the 2008 recession, the instances of college graduate underemployment (CGU) have increased throughout the United States. College graduate underemployment is an employment condition that is characterized by subjective and objective factors, most prominent of which is an incongruence between one’s education and one’s current job. The intriguing nature of CGU is how both employment and education merge together to influence the individual’s perception of their employment prospects, their educational experiences, and their identity. This study employs a dialogical qualitative analysis to examine CGU in order to ascertain how underemployed college graduates construct narratives of their experiences and define the value of their education. Twenty in-depth interviews of underemployed college graduates from different academic disciplines are analyzed with a dialogical genre analysis developed by Paul Sullivan. Two genre pairs— epic/romance and tragedy/black comedy—are employed to illustrate the correlating modes of experience for these participants, creating new narratives that problematize the dominant education-to-employment progression.

Keywords: dialogical analysis; higher education; underemployment

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1393 Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 1-24

Géneros de Subempleo: un Análisis Dialógico del Subempleo de Graduados Universitarios

Joseph Cunningham University of Cincinnati

(Recibido: 21 de enero de 2015; Aceptado: 28 de septiembre de 2015; Publicado: 28 de febrero de 2016)

Resumen Con más personas que obtienen el pregrado y posgrado, y el mercado de trabajo que todavía se está recuperando de la recesión de 2008, los casos de subempleo de graduados universitarios (CGU) han aumentado en todo Estados Unidos. El subempleo de graduados universitarios, es una condición de empleo que se caracteriza por factores subjetivos y objetivos, lo más destacado de los cuales es una incongruencia entre la propia educación y el trabajo actual. La naturaleza intrigante del CGU es cómo, el empleo y la educación, se funden juntos para influir en la percepción del individuo sobre sus perspectivas de empleo, sus experiencias educativas, y sobre su identidad. Este estudio emplea un análisis dialógico cualitativo para examinar el CGU, a fin de determinar cómo subempleados graduados universitarios construyen narrativas de sus experiencias y definir el valor de su educación. Se analizan veinte entrevistas en profundidad de los graduados universitarios subempleados de diferentes disciplinas académicas con un análisis de género dialógico desarrollado por Paul Sullivan. Dos pares de géneros, épico/romance y tragedia/comedia negra, son empleados para ilustrar los modos de correlación de las experiencias de estos participantes, la creación de nuevas narrativas que problematizan la progresión dominante-educación-empleo. Palabras clave: análisis dialógico, educación superior, subempleo

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1393 Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 3

he problem of college graduate underemployment (CGU) begins not with the post-graduation job search, but before college. CGU T represents the inversion of numerous expectations, most notably that the college degree is a sound gateway to gainful employment in whatever field of study captivates an individual’s interests and passions. This expectation motivates the majority of the 1.8 million students in the United States who will earn a bachelor’s degree, not to mention the 778,000 who will earn Master’s degrees and the 177,000 who will earn doctoral degrees (National Center of Education Statistics, 2013). The American Freshmen Survey reports that 88% of participating freshmen stated that getting a better job was a reason they attended college, up nearly 20% since 2006 (“Money Lures,” 2013). With quality employment opportunities scarce, the anticipatory search for employment creates a prevailing ideological imperative that compels many to go to college (Yee, 2012). However, with increasing frequency, many college graduates are finding that their expectations are not being realized, and at least initially, college graduates, across most academic disciplines, are experiencing underemployment—a condition that can persist for months, if not years, after graduation (Schmitt & Boushey, 2011). With the job market constrained as a result of the 2008 economic crisis and the changing landscape of manual and intellectual work, underemployment remains a legitimate possibility for many college graduates. When faced with this possibility, many people shake their heads and point to the problematic nature of the job market as the primary culprit, but this, itself, is problematic because it prevents many from asking difficult questions regarding the relationship between higher education and employment. The most striking of these questions is why perceive higher education as a gateway to a career in the first place. This study will endeavor to examine the complicated nuances of this question, analyzing the ideological relationship between education and employment framed in the larger context of college graduate underemployment. By employing a dialogical analysis, the narratives of underemployed college graduates will come together to form genres of underemployment, thus unveiling crucial features of the underemployed college graduate experience and its relation to education.

4 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment

Literature Review

There has been incredible rise in the number of underemployed people, college educated and not college educated, as a result of the 2008 recession. A pool of research has placed underemployment as high as fifty percent between 2010 and 2012 (Lee, 2010; Roksa & Arum, 2012) while others have it at less foreboding, but still problematic twenty-five percent during the same period (Hobijn, Gardiner, & Wiles, 2011). Additionally, the effects of CGU can linger long past graduation with 66% of underemployed graduates remaining so for at least a year (Clark, Joubert, & Maurel 2014). In “The Class of 2014: The Weak Economy is Idling too Many Young Graduates,” Shierholz, Davis, and Kimball (2014) extend this troubling outlook even further: “entering the labor market in a severe downturn can lead to reduced earnings, greater earnings instability, and more spells of unemployment over the next 10 to 15 years” (p. 23). When analyzing CGU, one must consider numerous factors, including the role higher education possesses in constructing CGU, but this role, while important, is largely secondary if the number of jobs remains limited. CGU is an as much an employment issue as it is an issue of education, and while some may argue that education is the way out of this situation, if there are not enough jobs to meet graduates after graduation, CGU is inevitable (Marsh, 2011). Unemployment is essentially an all-or-nothing condition. Either a person has a job or that person does not. Underemployment is more complicated in this regard, for while one can point to objective criteria such as pay, hours worked, and education-job congruence, there is also an array of subjective factors that are important in defining underemployment (Scurry & Blenkinsopp, 2011). Before examining these distinctions, a general definition of underemployment is required. Glyde, Davis, and King (1977) provide one of the first and most widely utilized research-based definitions of underemployment: “an involuntary employment condition where workers are in jobs, either part-time or full-time, in which their skills, including formal and work experience training are technically underutilized and thus undervalued relative to those of other individuals who have made equivalent investments in skill development” (p. 246). In this definition, there are objective and subjective features of underemployment. The objective features are easier to grasp as they revolve around things like the number of hours worked (full-time vs. part-time), a worker’s salary, and

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 5 even a basic congruence between a worker’s skills and his or her actual job. However, while one can somewhat objectively look at this congruence and argue that an engineer working at Burger King is underemployed, when introducing the concept of skill utilization, the subjective territory becomes more complicated. Indeed, underemployment proves to be an inexact science, largely subjective in nature. David Livingstone (2004) defines subjective underemployment with the following criteria: “perception of overqualification for current job; unfilled desire to use work skills that are unrecognized in present job; and a sense of entitlement to a better job” (p.220). Within each of these criteria, there is linkage to the worker’s identity or sense of self, so that subjective underemployment is more of an ontological construct, one through which the worker employs a set of comparisons in order to ascertain correspondence between his or her skills and the actual position. Education is often the primary factor through which these comparisons are made. In what is considered a pivotal article in underemployment studies, Daniel Feldman’s (1996) “The Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences of Underemployment,” the definitions of underemployment are created via comparison to an ideal state of employment, a state that often reflects educational experience: “underemployment is defined relative to some standard. In some cases, underemployment is defined relative to the employment experiences of others with the same education or work history; in other cases, underemployment is defined relative to the person’s own past education or work history” (p. 387). Due to the vast number of jobs a worker can have and the number of facets of each job that could potentially measure underemployment, understanding underemployment requires more investigations in nuanced territory (Jensen & Slack, 2003). There have been a series of qualitative studies that analyze features of the underemployed experience, particularly relating to the negative effects underemployment yields for the individual; these effects include depression and a general discouragement in regard to obtaining a better job (Stofferahn, 2000; Van Ham, Mulder, & Hooimeijer, 2001; Wilkins, 2007). However, despite education’s substantial role in determining one’s underemployed status, a gap within the literature demonstrates a need for understanding the nuanced relationship between education and underemployment, and the following study represents one contribution towards answering this need. College

6 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment graduate underemployment is more than an employment status. Through dialogical qualitative analysis, CGU becomes something more complex as it intertwines with the positionality of underemployed graduates and informs how they perceive the value of their educational experiences. This relation thus adds new ways to understand the education-to-employment progression where the ideologically-constructed relationship between these two experiences is problematized, yet the belief in education’s value, outside of work, remains intact.

Methods

For this study, 20 participants were interviewed. Of these participants, the age was between 23 and 55. The primary reason for this large age range was due to interviewing a large number of individuals with advanced degrees as well as a few non-traditional students. Due to the in-depth nature of the interviews and the desire to allow these interviews to determine the shape and construction of the dialogical genre analysis that would follow, sampling concluded at twenty participants. The participants were separated into four disciplinary groups (five participants per group) reflecting the degrees held by the participants: English/Humanities, Education/Social Sciences, Business/Computers, and Math/Science. Table 1 further breaks down the sample by degree and position:

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 7

Table 1. Description of Participants

Social English/Humanities Business/Computer Math/Science Sciences/Education Cohort Field Cohort Cohort Cohort

B.A. in English B.S. in education B.S. in information B.A. in math systems

B.A. in theatre B.A. in education M.S. in information B.A. in math

studies systems

Most M.A. in B.A. in M.S. in computer B.A. in Advanced philosophy anthropology science environmental Degrees science

Ph.D. in English M.A. in women’s M.B.A. B.S. in studies biology

Ph.D. in poetry Ph.D. in education M.B.A. M.S. in biochemistry

Part-time librarian Call center Part-time temp. Tutor employee worker

Part-time tutor Daycare worker Part-time educator Entry-level

computer programmer Positions Part-time educator Part-time tutor Part-time educator Barista

Part-time educator Testing center Part-time educator Daycare employee worker

Part-time educator Part-time educator Part-time educator Tutor

All participants interviewed for the study identified themselves as underemployed college graduates. As the table summarizes, 13 of the participants, at the time of the interview, were part-time employees and

8 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment therefore, due to both time and salary, could be identified as objectively underemployed. The remainder of the participants could be categorized as subjectively underemployed, demonstrating one or more of the following characteristics: a mismatch between the degree held and their position, a lower wage compared to other individuals with the same degree, and a lack of skill utilization/education utilization compared to other individuals with the same degree. The nature of underemployment as a condition possessing one or more of these features was described to the participants in the consent document, which was signed prior to the interviews taking place. Interviews for this study occurred between June and October of 2013. The primary mode of obtaining participants was through snowball sampling as well as emailing part-time educators directly. After recruiting a participant and obtaining their consent, I utilized a modified interview protocol developed in Irving Seidman’s (2006) Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. Seidman employs a three-stage interview process consisting of a life history, an intense investigation of the experience being studied (in this case, the underemployed experience), and a reflection on the process. This three-stage interview provided a detailed narrative of each participant’s educational and employment experience, enabling the participants to weave complex narratives of context, history, description of specific events, and reflection. Each narrative was recorded and transcribed in its entirety before analyzing the interviews via a dialogical analysis. Dialogical analysis was developed by Paul Sullivan and described in his 2012 work, Qualitative Data Analysis: Using a Dialogical Approach. Sullivan’s data analysis model emphasizes tropes of qualitative research such as dialogue and subjectivity with tropes of literary theory—the common linkage of discourse uniting the two. For Sullivan, the crucial distinction between his model and other qualitative analysis approaches is his utilization of genre as a means of approaching the subjectivity of his interviewees. In attempting to draw collective threads from these narratives and link them to something concrete, the notion of genre representation became attractive. As the materialization of cultural narratives that we are familiar with and find similarities to our own lives, genre representation functions as a means of understanding the underemployed experience and how it influences one’s perception of higher education. In this way, two primary

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 9 genre pairs emerged from the interviews: epic and romance and tragedy and black comedy. The subsequent analysis will demonstrate how these genres materialized from the interviews and what these genres have to tell us about the underemployed college graduate experience.

Discussion

Genre Pair 1: Epic and Romance

Genre represents a crucial device that provides shape to our narratives, a cultural touchstone that appropriates modes of storytelling established in traditional narrative arcs for our own storytelling processes. This process often occurs unconsciously. The participants did not consciously consult modes of epic, romance, or tragedy to craft their own life stories represented in the interviews. However, in analyzing the nature of these life stories, the positionality of the interviewee in relation to his or her own underemployed experience recreates pivotal features of these genres to assist in understanding the situation at hand. The first genre pair, epic and romance, stem from a common point of intersection: the position of the self in their transmission of their narrative. At key moments within the interview experience, the participants often manipulated these two genres to represent themselves in their narratives. The epic genre is largely typified by a broad dramatization of crucial experiences in which the participant is at the center of the events. In analyzing these moments, molded in an epic genre, the participant perceives facets of the underemployed experience as moments in life resonating with intense activity, often of a frustrated sort. As the ensuing analysis will illustrate, the epic genre intertwines the self with a whirlwind of activity that often resembles a journey, another key motif of epic literature. I have decided to present the genre analysis in pairs to demonstrate how the participants perceive similar content in a different fashion. This binary relation does not imply that there are only two ways to craft a story, but these genre pairs do function as the dominant genre forms present in the interviews. The romance genre is concerned with similar aspects of the life stories, but functions as a dramatically different representation. Once more, the participant is centralized in the life story, but instead of activity and trial dominating the mode of storytelling, reflection and idealism serve as the

10 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment dominant themes. Harkening back to the original Romanticism of Keats, Wordsworth, and Shelley, the romance genre is more representative of the internal self. In linking this genre to the underemployment narratives of the study’s college graduates, the romance genre communicates the internal world of the participants, periods of intense reflection that brings light to the participants’ feelings regarding their higher educational experience in light of their current work status.

The epic genre represented in the interviews

Now that the primary elements of the genre pair have been introduced, one can see how these genres were employed in the life stories of the participants (whose reflections are connected to pseudonyms). In beginning with the epic genre, the centralization of the participant in a world of activity occurs at numerous points in the narrative. Initial struggles with the college experience proved to be a prevalent theme in many of the interviews. This struggle often possesses an epic character as described by Mona in her discussion of navigating her theatre program:

I personally ended up having a hard time with my program because it was a conservatory; the idea is that they are training you rigorously to be in professional theatre in the real world. It was very much…the program was not, “Well, you’re kinda of get an idea of what this and then go to grad school.” The idea was we would be employed in theatre. I clashed with my advisors a lot and didn’t feel very supported by them. I think that was a problem with personality more than anything else.

What is important to notice here is not only what is being told, but how it is told, for this primarily constructs the genre. The theme of struggle is pervasive throughout this quotation, but more importantly, the other characteristics of the epic genre are present here. Broadly narrating the events of her higher education experience with her firmly centralized in the action, Mona weaves a complicated narrative in a few sentences. Interestingly enough, this narrative is one that is centered upon the problems of focusing on work preparation at the undergraduate level in a mode of education not necessarily linked to employment. Mona speaks of a

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 11 time where learning is somewhat supplanted by work preparation, which led to a series of conflicts that placed a great strain on her college experience. With this narrative crucial to the life story, the epic genre proves to be an adequate means by which she formulates this arc in order to relate herself to the stressful action in her higher education experiences. Another common plot point in the underemployed experience is the search for work, which is, in some sense, an epic journey within itself. Often traveling long distances, meeting numerous people, and undergoing the stress of the searching and interviewing processes, the search for work is often framed in an epic genre. Marie describes her search for work after graduating with a degree in biology in this fashion:

I think originally I was looking for some things still kinda of in the medical field or administratively since I did some office work. I also worked for a certified financial planner as an office assistant…I was not necessarily trying to be picky because I knew I needed a job. So I still was looking in a medical environment, but also looking for some office generic work.

The quest for a job proves to be one that leads the individual into all sorts of potential options. Unsure how she could translate her degree into employment, Marie sought numerous paths, the pressure to obtain some manner of employment compelling her to seek “grunt work” or “generic work.” Furthermore, the emphasis on “I” here is important because this search is something see feels she has to do. With her higher education experience over (at least for the time being), Marie entered a new phase of her life with considerable uncertainty as she was unsure about what types of jobs she would be qualified for. Marie employs the epic genre to communicate the intensely personal dilemma of realizing that she had to get a job, but struggling with the lack of connections her degree possessed in terms of obtaining employment. The final example of the epic genre presented here is of the underemployed experience itself, which also possesses characteristics of the epic. Struggles are abound in the underemployment experience, both internally and externally, and many participants characterize that genre with an epic mode of storytelling, focusing on the chaotic journey. Travis

12 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment discusses the labor flexibility, instilled by working a part-time job at the library, in an epic fashion with the journey at the center point:

When I was working part-time at the library, it was really weird because I had this madman’s schedule where I would always work either Friday or Saturday eight hours, but I was working part-time, so my hours were spread throughout the week, often in four hour blocks, which would really suck because I was working at a branch 25 miles from where I lived, so I would drive 25 miles through congested interstates to work four hours for $10.38 an hour and drive back through congested interstates for 25 miles, so yeah, bordering on zero-sum off those days, probably in terms of my time.

The journey of underemployment is one with continued trials, both of an internal and external nature. Travis, here, undergoes a journey of great effort in which the material returns are not substantial. In each example, the conflicts that emerged compelling the participant to act often possess a feeling underneath of struggling to understand. Whether it is navigating higher education, the job search, or the career world, these new and difficult spheres leave questions for the individual, and in comparison to the romance genre, these questions populate the narrative with feelings of anxiety as opposed to moments of positive reflection.

The romance genre in the interviews

The romance genre, as presented in the interviews, operates as a tool for reflection. Through the entire interview, activity functions as only one mode of narrative, and the need for reflection on the activity is equally crucial in providing an account of one’s experiences. Moreover, due to the structure of the interview process, the emphasis on reflection creates a need for a different genre in recounting the narrative of underemployment. Therefore, the romance proves to be an appropriate environment for this reflection to take place. Expressing the internal self at various points in the narrative, participants employed a mode of romantic storytelling to frame several crucial elements of their life story. What is also fascinating about this particular genre is that it was, more often than not, utilized throughout the education sections of their narrative

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 13 whereas the epic genre was employed more evenly, but primarily focused on the employment aspect of the story. For instance, Carol, who does not utilize her degree in anthropology in her work as a tutor in the hard sciences, employs a romantic lens to reflect on her educational experiences:

I think my anthropology degree has given me a perspective on…especially in relating to a variety of students and realizing that…that diversity is a thing. It is not just people being difficult. That people do come from a variety of backgrounds, a variety of cultural differences. And…so…I am happy that I have my anthropology degree, but I don’t think it directly relates to my job very often.

Joan, too, in a similar reflection discusses the profound transformative effect that obtaining a degree in women’s studies had on her: “I can’t even imagine what kind of person I turned out to be if I hadn’t ended up in the classrooms that I did. Mostly, that is women’s studies. The women’s studies classroom changed who I am in this really fundamental way. I would have been a totally different person if I hadn’t had those experiences." In both reflections, the romantic genre serves as both an avenue of contemplation as well as an expression of recognizing the value of education outside of employment. These portions of the life story hold little action, but operate as a means to make sense of the activity surrounding the participants. Neither Carol nor Joan is actively utilizing their degrees in their current occupations, but both reflect positively on the value of their education in other, more personal ways. Elyse also reflects on education in a similar manner:

I would say the most valuable part of college is not necessarily the job preparation or technical training, but it’s the process of becoming a citizen or becoming an engaged citizen and that was one of the most useful aspects of college. Becoming an engaged citizen and learning how to think, learning how to analyze, learning how to understand yourself in relation to the rest of society and the rest of the world is what I would say is really valuable to take away from college.

14 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment

This particular reflection distinctly separates education from work, bringing a powerful collection of benefits to the forefront. The romantic/idealistic outcomes of education are included here, not only focusing on critical thinking, but the Jeffersonian outcomes of education of becoming part of an engaged citizenry. This reflection implicitly considers the increasingly popular notions revolving around the value of education and serves as a powerful refutation for what education could potentially be for the individual as a part of society.

Genre Pair 2: Tragedy and Black Comedy

The next genre pair analyzes two perspectives on the negativity regarding the underemployed experience itself. Although some participants did not depict underemployment as an overly problematic situation, none of the participants perceived their working status as ideal. Moreover, the majority of participants regarded their underemployed experience negatively and sought to obtain full employment in the immediate future if such a situation presented itself. What is of interest here is how this negativity is depicted by the participants, and the following two genres, tragedy and black comedy, function as two ways to categorize the difficult features of the underemployed experience. Although considering underemployment a tragedy is, in some sense, overly dramatic, when considers it from the perspective of genre, it is more befitting. This is due to tragedy, similar to epic, being a genre of overwhelming conflict, but unlike the epic, the climax of a tragedy is typified by personal loss. In this way, underemployment is something of a tragedy for underemployed college graduates where the long narrative of the college experience ends in a negative manner. However, this is but one way to characterize the negativity surrounding the underemployed experience. Other participants instilled a different emotional modality to this negativity, instilling almost surreal bewilderment and even humor into these portions of their narratives. Therefore, the other half of the genre pair, black comedy, becomes a useful tool in analyzing these experiences. The black comedy (or dark comedy or tragicomedy) can be represented as either a darkly humorously tale or a humorously dark tale depending on one’s perspective. Regardless, the dramatic action holds similar content to the tragedy; intense conflicts take place, and personal

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 15 losses occur. The crucial difference is that throughout this action there is a surreal sense of absurdity or comedy resonating throughout the story. Underemployment carries certain facets of tragedy, but for certain individuals, these unfortunate circumstances possess a similar absurd quality, often typified by a surreal subversions of expectations.

The tragedy genre in the interviews

In the interviews, the tragedy genre captured a collection of feelings revolving around the difficulties of the underemployed experience. This collection of feelings largely stem from a single root; it is not the underemployed experience itself that generates this negative emotion, but rather the belief that by virtue of having a degree, the participants believed they should be in a better situation in terms of their occupation. The inability to use their degrees coupled with the intense desire to do something more fulfilling (as well as more profitable) is the true tragedy for the participants, leading to feelings of low self-efficacy. Janice exemplifies this tragedy when discussing her initial confidence about obtaining a job after earning her doctoral degree only to have that confidence shattered: “Oh, initially I was very confident. But that was in 2010, and now that we’re in 2013, my self-esteem has plummeted. (Laughs) I…I mean, really a great sense of worthlessness right now…I am not using my doctorate at all.” The tragedy genre frequently consists of these feelings revolving around the degree, exacerbated by the underemployed status. This combination often generates a feeling of “limbo” for the participants as described by Stephanie:

And now, I feel like I’m just stuck…stuck in an old situation when I should be out doing something with my career or education. It’s harder to find value in what I do here when I know I should be doing something else. Yeah. It’s harder to care because you know theoretically and in the immediate future you will be something really awesome that you really want to do.

In the world of labor, the ability to obtain a job and work is seemingly filled with a great deal of autonomy and action, but oftentimes this ability is

16 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment heavily influenced by factors we cannot control (e.g., economic crisis, competition for jobs, etc.). Individuals who obtain higher education credentials seek to garner greater autonomy in choosing a career, but when they become underemployed, this autonomy inverts to feelings of paralysis. Heather also communicates this notion in her reflection:

That is a difficult question because I have been without [full-time] work for two years because I am sitting on a master’s degree. Again, the demographics in the area that I’m from, I can’t go to work at McDonalds because I am overqualified. I could not even work at McDonalds with an Associate's, probably. The degree that you have plays a huge role in the area that you work in. So it’s a struggle; it’s a constant struggle.

The interesting character of this reflection is not only the immaterial displacement that Heather struggles with, that of not being able to utilize her degree, but also the physical dislocation enforced by where she currently lives. Ultimately, the tragedy is a combination of three negative outcomes indicative of the underemployed experience. The first is the inability to utilize one’s degree. The second is the complex array of feelings that this inability generates, including feelings of aimlessness, low self- confidence, and frustration. Lastly, these feelings pervade other experiences in the participant’s social realms including one’s family and social life. Moreover, despite the possibility that many of the participants will in time overcome these obstacles, there is a sense in each of these reflections that this tragedy has some degree of permanence as if the participants will never break out of this limbo. The frustration and low self-confidence instill this sense, creating the tragic narrative strands in these life stories where a positive resolution does not seem to be on the horizon.

The black comedy genre in the interviews

Although it also functions as a tool to understand the negativity revolving around the underemployed experience, the black comedy genre, as employed in the interviews, operates as a foil to tragedy in two crucial ways. The first is the actual content of the life story, which instead of resonating with feelings of deep disappointment, has a somewhat lighter

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 17 character, typically of either actual humor or general bewilderment. Once more, the content of black comedy can be as dark as a tragedy, but the tonality of this content is presented in a different manner. In her reflection regarding the problems of working in a testing center, Joan employs the black comedy to communicate the contradictions between her degree and her current occupation: “If anything I would say they are quite a bit at odds with each other. (Laughs) I would say most women studies folks would call standardization testing culturally biased and part of the problem of education. Yeah, there’s that (Laughs).” This quotation demonstrates some of the key ideas of the black comedy genre. Most important, this reflection is expressing negativity and dissatisfaction regarding the incongruity between Joan’s degree and her job, one of the primary generators of the tragedy genre in the interviews. However, the form of this negativity assumes a different shape. Punctuated by laughter and not dominated by the frustration of this incongruity, Joan’s reflection carriers a lighter tone as she expresses the problems of subjective underemployment where it is indeed not a perfect world, but thankfully is also not as bleak. The second crucial dimension of many of the black comedy responses is that while the tragedy carries a largely reflective content, the black comedy typically is centered upon forms of action. This harkens back to the epic/romance genre pair where the epic genre serves as a genre of action guiding activity while the romantic genre proves to be more reflective in nature. In describing his initial work experiences following graduating from college with a degree in mathematics, Wallace’s narrative moves into the territory of a black comedy:

Um…I was more confident immediately after graduation than I was a little bit later. Not too confident really. I think my plan was to sub for a while, like a year, and apply to grad school…Well no, it was a strange, strange time. All right, well I was sorta fired, not from subbing entirely, just hired paid subbing. So, then, I had not applied to grad school the second year, I think that’s right, so then, I moved to Cincinnati on a whim and lived on credit until I found a job, which was probably another bad decision, probably.

Wallace’s journey, in some sense, is similar to the stories described in the epic genre. However, a different tone resonates with this activity. Once

18 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment more, although this situation indeed proved to be quite dire for Wallace as he struggled with part-time jobs that he may have not been suited for and the financial problems that occurred as a result, there was not a sense of extreme negativity in Wallace’s discussion, but rather an oddly humorous character. This character, as will soon be discussed, probably relates more to one’s personality and identity rather than external factors since different individuals would tell this story in a more epic manner. Humor alone does not construct the tone of the black comedy genre. In telling the story of the underemployed experience and the negativity surrounding it, participants sometimes regard their underemployed jobs as ironic inversions of the jobs they desire. Heidi describes here the sense of job security she possesses working at a daycare: “The only job security that I have is that very little staffing because our owner is…doesn’t really want to have more people brought in because people to be bored and doesn’t want people walking around, but…so, you know, there is job security in that they aren’t going to get rid of me unless I do something horrible because they need me as a body.” The underemployed experience possesses several facets of an ideal job: tasks, hours, pay, coworkers, etc. However, these characteristics appear, to many participants, as possessing a parodic function, poorly imitating nuances of full-time labor. In this reflection, job security, often an expression of how much employers value their employees, is rendered in the opposite capacity. Heidi’s degree, in this situation, is of little value in regard to her work; instead, she is needed only as a body.

Results

By cataloguing the interviews into genres, one can collectively analyze pertinent features of the underemployed college graduate experience. Moreover, not only do the genre pairs hold a binary relationship to one another in terms of content, but new genre pairs can be formulated when considering the form of the responses presented. In this way, Figure 1 acts as a useful model for mapping dominant characteristics of CGU as experienced by the participants, charting the positionality, active/reflexive modality, and problematic features of CGU.

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 19

Figure 1. Relations among genres

The genres, as represented in the interviews, focus on what modes of content formulate an underemployed college graduate’s narrative of the experience and how these narratives are constructed. Regarding the former, each genre pair unveils complex nuances regarding the experience. The first genre pair, epic and romance, is an expression of positionality that pulse through many of the interviews. The romantic idealism that surrounds both education and potential employment is often contradicted, in a dialectical way, by the epic genre that dominates the participants’ experiences. The conflicts that are dense within these stories illustrate how an ideal construction of the self—as conceptualized in one’s educational and work experiences—becomes subverted by the conflict at the heart of epic genre. Additionally, the second genre pair, tragedy and black comedy, further illustrate the dual nature of the conflict, which at times can be full of

20 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment genuine discouragement and despair and at other times becomes ironic and even humorous. Therefore, the negativity surrounding the underemployed experience has a dual character, one often expressed in the interviews as a feeling of limbo or stasis, which is further aggravated by the further subversion of expectations. Moreover, these genres also offer glimpses into how these narratives of underemployment are constructed with active and reflective genres. The epic and black comedy genre are largely active nature, typically employed to narrate a particular event, usually of a conflictual nature. The romance and tragedy genres possess a more reflective nature, offering glimpses of the underemployed experience that is more emotional in content and abstracted. This is worth noting because it illustrates the degree to which the underemployed experience becomes integrated in the individual’s life. Underemployment is not just a mode of action characterized by a series of events. It does not stop at the workplace, but rather extends from it, influencing the individual’s perception of the past and future. Additionally, the underemployed experiences possesses a powerful reflective modality, one that weighs heavily on the thoughts of the participants, compelling them to question how they became underemployed and the uncertainty surrounding how to escape this experience. These genres further represent how the traditional narrative that motivates students to enroll in college—the direct progression from college to employment in which graduates capitalize on the college premium—can be disrupted, both in terms of the content and form of the narratives. The epic and black comedy genres show illustrate how this direct progression can become a twisting pathway, rife with conflicts of both large and small proportions. The tragedy and romance genres subvert the larger ideological impulse that education is primarily a pathway to a career. The romance genre reflections place education outside of labor and the tragedy genre reflections consist of regretting the disconnect that underemployment enforces between higher education and employment. Therefore, these genres are perhaps most useful as a way of illustrating the potential narratives outside of the dominant narrative. With the problematic features of the labor market persisting, these outside narratives are occurring with greater frequency, forcing us to consider the role of education in these genres.

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 21

The analysis also illustrates that the relationship between the individual’s identity and education is of profound significance to the participants. Indeed, for many of the participants, it is not necessarily the material problems surrounding underemployment that warrant the most lamentation, but rather the inability to put one’s education to use. We invest a great deal of ourselves when obtaining a college degree, time and money are obviously highlighted, but there is also a personal commitment towards shaping our identity to a particular field of study as that field study initially corresponds with some facet of our identity in the first place. When these investments (as college is now typically portrayed as) do not yield returns, the question of education’s value becomes a driving force in the narratives. This is not to contend that underemployment compelled the participants to devalue their educational experiences. To the contrary, as the romance genre particularly illustrates, the participants usually regarded their educational experiences quite highly. Instead, these genres highlight the tensions within the question of education’s value, marked by contradicting ideological imperatives that continually reinforce the importance of education as a means of obtaining employment while simultaneously not reflecting the material reality of labor, which does not necessarily value higher education as substantially as we are led to believe. This tension plays out at an individual level with each genre illustrating how the participant struggles reconciling his or her own definition of education’s value in relation to this larger ideology. Devoid of clear resolution, the underemployed college graduate narrative functions as something of an unfinished draft, the conflict lingering onward past the yet unwritten pages.

Limitations, Future Research, and Conclusion

The phenomenon of underemployment does not occur in a vacuum and is subject to the influence of demographics of the participants. This study’s geographic scope was limited to the Cincinnati area, so studies from different areas could contribute to our understanding of CGU. As previously stated, the decision to investigate twenty interviews in great detail enabled for those narratives to determine the genres necessary for analysis; however, since CGU is a largely subjective condition, highly influenced by the individual experiencing it, more individuals sharing their stories could yield different results. Lastly, the dialogical analysis

22 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment represents an innovative way at understanding a collection of life stories as a whole. The analysis’ utilization of genre forms not only provides insight into the thematic content of the interviews, but it also serves as a portal as to how the individuals construct their narratives and how they manipulate genre tropes to share their stories. Nevertheless, Sullivan’s analytical approach is still in its relative infancy, so other analytical models of a more conventional nature could uncover different facets of the underemployed experience. Steven, one of the study’s participants, described his experience with CGU in the following manner: “It depends on how you look at it. Nothing is limiting me or holding me back from doing something later. It is continuous story, and because of that, right now I’m still happy with the portion where we at in the movie.” For many individuals experiencing CGU, these sentiments are quite appropriate. Ultimately, they see (or hope) that their problematic employment is but a minor conflict in the larger story of their lives, one that will in time end happily with them further pursuing their passions in the form of a career. For some individuals, this will occur, and this underemployed condition will dissipate through continual efforts being realized despite the difficulties in the labor market. For others, underemployment of some fashion will be persist, and difficult choices will be made regarding whether or not these individuals will continue to pursue their interests as a career or if they will separate degree from employment and seek a job in a more welcoming field. The story is ongoing, and while this study focuses on a typically discouraging portion, many of the participants still remain optimistic, finding value in their educational experiences and looking hopefully toward the future.

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 23

References

Clark, B., Joubert, C., & Maurel, A. (2014). The career prospects of overeducated Americans. The National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w20167 Feldman, D. (1996). The nature, antecedents, and consequences of underemployment. Journal of Management, 22(3), 385-407. doi:10.1177/014920639602200302 Glyde, G. P., Davis, F. G., & King, C. T. (1977). Underemployment: Definition and causes. Journal of Economic Issues (Pre- 1986), 11(000002), 245-245. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4224588 Hobijn, B, Gardiner, C., & Wiles, T. (2011). Recent college graduates and the job market. FRBSF Economic Letter, 2011(9), 1. Jensen, L., & Slack, T. (2003). Underemployment in America: Measurement and evidence: Underemployment and its social costs: new research directions. American Journal of Community Psychology, 32(1-2), 21-31. doi:10.1023/A:1025686621578 Lee, D. (2010). Overwhelming underemployment. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/749672983?accountid=2909 Livingstone, D.W. (2004). The education-jobs gap: underemployment or economic democracy.Aurora, Ontario: Garamond Press. Marsh, J. (2011). Class dismissed: Why we cannot teach or learn our way out inequality. New York: Monthly Review Press. Money lures most new students to college (2013). Women in Higher Education, 5. National Center of Education Statistics (2013). Fast facts. Retreived from http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372 Roksa, J., & Arum, R. (2012). Life after College: The challenging transitions of the academically adrift cohort. Change, 44(4), 8-14. doi:10.1080/00091383.2012.691857 Schmitt, J., & Boushey, H. (2011). Why don't more young people go to college?. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe Inc. Scurry, T., & Blenkinsopp, J. (2011). Under-employment among recent graduates: A review of the literature. Personnel Review, 40(5), 643- 659. doi:10.1108/00483481111154487

24 Cunningham – Genres of Underemployment

Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. New York: Teachers College Press. Shierholz, H., Davis, A., & Kimball, W. (2014). The class of 2014: The weak economy is idling too many young graduates. Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper, 377. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/publication/class-of-2014/ Stofferahn, C. W. (2000). Underemployment: Social fact or socially constructed reality? Rural Sociology, 65(2), 311-330. doi:10.1111/j.1549-0831.2000.tb00031.x Sullivan, P. (2012). Qualitative data analysis: Using a dialogical approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Van Ham, M., Mulder, C. H., & Hooimeijer, P. (2001). Local underemployment and the discouraged worker effect. Urban Studies (Routledge), 38(10), 1733-1751. doi:10.1080/00420980120084831 Wilkins, R. (2007). The consequences of underemployment for the underemployed. Journal of Industrial Relations, 49(2), 247-275. doi:10.1177/0022185607074921 Yee, A. (2012). Degree by default. Contexts, 11(4), 46-50. doi:10.1177/1536504212466331

Joseph Cunningham is the instructor of English of the University of Cincinnati and director of the University of Cincinnati Academic Writing Center, United States.

Contact Address: Joseph Cunningham, Langsam Library 401 N, Cincinnati, United States. Email: [email protected]

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¿Cómo Perciben las Competencias Básicas los Docentes? Estudio Cualitativo sobre su Incorporación como Herramienta de Aprendizaje

David Hortigüela Alcalá1, Ángel Pérez Pueyo2 & Víctor Abella García3

1) Departamento de Didácticas Específicas, Universidad de Burgos, Spain. 2) Departamento de Educación Física y Deportiva, Universidad de León, Spain. 3) Departamento de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Burgos, Spain.

Date of publication: February 28th, 2016 Edition period: October 2015 - February 2016

To cite this article: Hortigüela, D., Pérez, A., & Abella, V. (2016). ¿Cómo perciben las cometencias básicas los docentes? Estudio cualitativo sobre su incorporación como herramienta de aprendizaje. Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1), 25-48. doi:10.17583/qre.2016.1348

To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/qre.2016.1348

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 25-48

How Do Teachers Perceive Key Competencies? Qualitative Study of its Incorporation as a Learning Tool

David Hortigüela Alcalá Ángel Pérez Pueyo Universidad de Burgos Universidad de León

Víctor Abella García Universidad de Burgos

(Received: 12 December 2014; Accepted: 05 October 2015; Published: 28 February 2016)

Abstract

Actually, it’s so important to articulate procedures that enable to analyze real work made in schools on Key Competences (KKCC). The aim of this study it was studied the perception management teams and teachers of Physical Education (PE) about this curricular element. The sample used in the research covers all the secondary schools in the capital of Burgos (Spain), a total of thirty. It was studied, using the descriptive analysis of a series of questionnaires completed by teachers, the assessment made them on the use of KKCC as an element of learning by the student. It has also conducted a single case study as a participant observer during a school year in a representative sample center, in order to examine in detail in the daily contribution to competencies. Participating teachers, despite favorable consideration to the integration of KKCC in the classroom, demonstrate a lack of information by the public administration, resulting in a lack of teacher training in regard to the possible application tools the classroom.

Keywords: Key Competencies, assessment strategies, participatory methodologies, learning resources, student involvement.

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1348 Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 25-48

¿Cómo Perciben las Competencias Básicas los Docentes? Estudio Cualitativo sobre su Incorporación como Herramienta de Aprendizaje

David Hortigüela Alcalá Ángel Pérez Pueyo Universidad de Burgos Universidad de León

Víctor Abella García Universidad de Burgos

(Recibido: 12 de diciembre de 2014; Aceptado: 05 de octubre de 2015; Publicado: 28 de febrero de 2016)

Resumen

Es importante que en la actualidad se articulen procedimientos que garanticen el trabajo consensuado y real que se hace en los centros educativos sobre las competencias básicas (CCBB). El objetivo del estudio es analizar la percepción que tienen los equipos directivos y los profesores de Educación Física (EF) sobre dicho elemento curricular. La muestra utilizada en la investigación abarca la totalidad de los centros de Educación Secundaria de la capital de Burgos (España), treinta. Se estudia, mediante el análisis descriptivo de una serie de cuestionarios cumplimentados por los docentes, la valoración que realizan éstos sobre la utilización de las CCBB como elemento de aprendizaje del alumno. También se ha llevado a cabo un estudio de caso único como observador participante durante un curso escolar en un centro representativo de la muestra, con el fin de examinar detalladamente en el día a día la contribución a las competencias. Los docentes participantes, a pesar de considerar de manera favorable la integración de las CCBB en el aula, manifiestan una falta de información por parte de la Administración Pública, lo que deriva en una carencia en la formación del profesorado respecto a las posibles herramientas de aplicación en el aula.

Palabras clave: Competencias Básicas, estrategias de evaluación, metodologías participativas, recursos de aprendizaje, implicación del alumnado.

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1348 Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 27

as competencias son concebidas como el elemento curricular clave en el ámbito educativo, derivando de ellas una gran cantidad de L documentos vinculadas a la constatación de aprendizajes: Informe Delors (UNESCO, 1996), el Proyecto DeSeCo, el Informe PISA (OCDE, 2006, 2009) o las Recomendaciones del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo en materia de convergencia educativa (Consejo Europeo, 2000, 2001, 2002a, 2002b; EURYDICE, 2004). Apenas ocho años después de implantar las Competencias Básicas (CCBB) en España (LOE 2/2006), la reciente modificación de la Ley Orgánica (LOMCE 8/2013) cambia el término que las define pasando a denominarlas “Competencias Clave”. Sin embargo, siguen teniendo una relevancia trascedente como elemento de aprendizaje y son muchas las dudas que se generan entre el profesorado sobre su importancia y, sobre todo, acerca de las pautas de cómo poder implantarlas en el aula de manera coherente y satisfactoria (Escamilla, 2008). El reciente RD 126/2014 por el que se establecen las Enseñanzas de la Educación Primaria, habla de “competencias clave”, definidas como esa serie de conocimientos y destrezas que permiten al alumno aprender a regular su propio aprendizaje, transfiriendo estos a la realidad de su día a día. Autores como Díaz Hernando (2008), aseguran que si tanta importancia se le otorga a las competencias en el marco educativo, es prioritario traducirlo en propuestas prácticas aplicables por los centros. En este sentido, es necesario conocer cómo se implantan en la práctica educativa las competencias básicas en los centros educativos para realizar un seguimiento de trabajo de las competencias real, común y efectivo por la totalidad de las áreas. Si este aspecto no se lleva a cabo, será inviable poder construir aprendizajes vinculados a la transferencia de la realidad social (Moya & Luengo, 2009). El trabajo acerca del estudio de la implantación de las CCBB en España ha sido profundo (Escamilla, 2008; Gómez-Pimpollo, Pérez-Pintado, & Arreaza, 2007; Heras & Pérez-Pueyo, 2012; Pérez-Pueyo & Casanova, 2010; Sarramona, 2004; Zabala & Arnau, 2007). Sin embargo, todas estas ideas no han tenido una repercusión directa en las Administraciones Educativas sobre la implantación de las CCBB. Por lo tanto, y atendiendo al campo práctico, lo verdaderamente relevante es realizar una formación permanente para el profesorado sobre esta temática, ya que si no las

28 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas competencias no supondrán nada más que teoría poco aplicable (Grubb, 2012). Otro de los aspectos prioritarios en relación al marco de aplicación más práctico es el tipo de modelo que se defiende para la contribución a las competencias, ya sea deductivo o inductivo. El primero se plantea de lo más general a lo más particular, debiendo establecer ya desde el Proyecto Educativo de Centro (PEC) un modelo en el que se determine a qué aspectos comunes se debe contribuir desde la totalidad de las áreas (Pérez- Pueyo, 2013a). El modelo inductivo se estructura al contrario, ya que es desde las propias áreas donde se determina a qué aspectos se va a contribuir, lo que pude conllevar un desacuerdo entre las intenciones de cada una de las materias. Esta falta de unanimidad queda de manifiesto al analizar cada una de las propuestas planteadas (Blázquez & Sebastiani, 2009; Escamilla, 2008; Moya & Luengo 2009; Pérez-Pueyo et al., 2013a, 2013b; Proyecto Atántida, 2013; Polo, 2010; Sarramona, 2004; Sebastiani, Blázquez, & Borrachina, 2009; Zabala & Arnau, 2007; Zagalaz & Cachón, 2009). Esta ausencia de un criterio oficial a la hora de implantar en los centros un elemento curricular con tanta trascendencia a nivel educativo es una de las razones que justifican este estudio. Para ello, se pretende analizar cómo se enseñan las competencias en el día a día de diferentes centros de Burgos a partir de las valoraciones del docente y equipos directivos, centrándonos en el área de Educación Física (EF). La elección de una materia nos permite poder asegurarnos abarcar a todo el profesorado de la misma y a todos los equipos directivos, comprobando así la equivalencia dirección-docentes en cada centro. En este caso, además, nos hemos decantado por el profesorado de EF, puesto que es habitual que les cueste comprender la razón de no contar con una competencia motriz (Méndez & López, 2009). Otro de los aspectos más difíciles de conocer es si las CCBB se califican. En este sentido, autores como Pérez-Pueyo (2012b, 2013a, 2013b) o Lozano, Boni, Pérez and Huesco (2012), establecen que las competencias no tienen que ser calificables, ya que lo que se calificará serán los procedimientos e instrumentos de evaluación de cada una de las Unidades Didácticas. Otra cosa muy diferente es que se utilicen estrategias de evaluación formativa en propuestas y actividades concretas que emanan desde el centro. Para ello, y debido a que todas las áreas tienen que contribuir, es fundamental delimitar desde los centros educativos una

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 29 estructura y compromiso de actuación para realizar una evaluación coherente y sistemática del alumnado, lo que responde a la implantación de un modelo deductivo. Por tanto, la comprensión de este modelo de contribución va más allá de una calificación al alumnado en una o varias asignaturas, ya que son necesarios acuerdos comunes entre todas las áreas sobre lo que el alumnado ha conseguido, es capaz de hacer y la manera en la que lo transfiere a la vida diaria (Hoskins & Crick, 2010). Para ello, es necesaria una concienciación entre los equipos directivos de los centros a la hora de incorporar a las sesiones de evaluación ordinarias el tratamiento de la contribución a las CCBB por parte el alumnado, convirtiendo este hecho en algo rutinario (Lleixá, 2007). En relación con el tipo de estrategias que pueden utilizarse para contribuir a las competencias, Pharo and Bridle (2012) y Pepper (2011) establecen que las tareas no tienen que centrarse únicamente en conocimientos que se impartan en el aula y que no tengan ningún tipo de vinculación con lo que se realice fuera de la misma, sino que deben conseguir que motiven al alumnado para indagar, buscar, reflexionar… En este sentido, es muy recomendable que se realicen diferentes proyectos que involucren a las familias, personal de bibliotecas y a otros agentes de la comunidad educativa en la realización de actividades complementarias y extraescolares. En todo este contexto, situamos nuestro estudio, dirigido a analizar la percepción del docente sobre la función de este elemento curricular. Ésta se diferencia en función de la valoración que realizan los equipos directivos sobre su implantación y la que refleja el profesorado de EF acerca de su trabajo en el día a día, vinculada a un plano metodológico y evaluativo.

Objetivos

Analizar la percepción de los equipos directivos sobre la implantación de propuestas de contribución a las CCBB como herramienta de programación en los centros Analizar la percepción del profesorado de EF acerca de la consideración del uso de las CCBB como elemento de trabajo y de aplicación en el día a día

30 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas

Comprobar el trabajo que realizan los profesores de EF en un centro educativo a lo largo de un curso escolar en relación al tratamiento de las CCBB, analizando su percepción, el trabajo de las clases y la valoración del alumnado.

Materiales y Método

Participantes

Se han utilizado la totalidad de los centros de Educación Secundaria de la capital de Burgos, un total de 30. De ellos, prácticamente las tres cuartas partes son carácter concertado. El trabajo de análisis en los centros se dividió, por un lado, en la percepción de los 30 equipos directivos sobre las CCBB como elemento programático utilizado en el PEC y, por otro, en la valoración que realizan los 30 jefes de departamento de EF como herramienta de orientación metodológica en la propuesta de contenidos. En el estudio de caso se analizó en profundidad el trabajo realizado por los 4 profesores de EF que componen el departamento de un centro seleccionado de la muestra.

Instrumentos

En función de los objetivos delimitados en el estudio y del tipo de metodología empleada, se han utilizado diferentes instrumentos de recogida de datos, estructurándose cada uno de ellos en una serie de categorías con el fin de obtener mayor clarividencia en al análisis de resultados.

Descripción de cuestionarios

Los dos cuestionarios que se utilizan en este estudio han sido validados por un grupo de expertos en la temática de competencias y EF, ratificando la idoneidad y veracidad de los mismos acerca de la obtención de información relacionada con el trabajo de las competencias en el día a día. Se realizará un análisis descriptivo de la totalidad de sus respuestas. El primero de ellos fue dirigido a los equipos directivos, mientras que el segundo fue cumplimentado por el profesorado de EF. En ambos se plantean cuestiones relacionadas con la implantación de propuestas en los

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 31 centros basadas en la evaluación de las CCBB, así como con la variedad de recursos y estrategias metodológicas utilizadas. Cada cuestionario constan de 8 preguntas y responden a una escala Likert de 1 a 5, (1: “no/nada”, 2: “poco”, 3 “bastante”, 4 “mucho”, 5 “No sabe”). Además, en cada una de las cuestiones el encuestado/a responde a una pregunta “semiabierta” en base a esa escala, lo que permite argumentar y justificar la respuesta. La variable relacionada con los equipos directivos se denomina “Grado de implantación y seguimiento de CCBB en los centros” mientras que la vinculada con el cuestionario del profesorado de EF lleva por nombre “Percepción y utilización de las CCBB como elemento de referencia en la metodología implantada”. Las cuestiones que se han planteado en el cuestionario del equipo directivo y que se agrupan bajo la variable “Grado de implantación y seguimiento de CCBB” han sido las siguientes: “Establecimiento de información en el Proyecto Educativo”, “Evaluación de las CCBB en sesiones trimestrales”, “Las CCBB favorecen el aprendizaje del profesorado”, “Es necesario establecer una coordinación por cursos”, “Permiten que el alumno evalúe a los demás”, “Permiten una evaluación más consensuada y rigurosa” “Permiten una evaluación más centrada en el proceso”, “Permiten mayor variedad de alternativas en la evaluación”. Las cuestiones que se han planteado en el cuestionario del docente de EF y que se agrupan bajo la variable “Percepción y utilización de las CCBB como elemento de referencia en la metodología implantada” han sido las siguientes: “Es imprescindible la metodología cooperativa”, “Permiten una evaluación más consensuada y rigurosa”, “Es necesario proponer contenidos innovadores”, “Es necesario permitir que el alumno valore su trabajo”, “Es necesario que el alumno valore a los demás”, “Son necesarios procedimientos de evaluación variados”, “Otorgan una visión amplia del concepto de aprendizaje”.

Instrumentos utilizados en el estudio de caso

Se utilizó la técnica del estudio de caso único, llevado a cabo en el curso escolar 2012-2013 y en el que se realizó un seguimiento del tratamiento metodológico, pedagógico, didáctico y curricular de los 4 profesores que integran el departamento de EF del centro de Secundaria seleccionado. Se

32 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas seleccionó este centro debido a la facilidad de extracción de datos en el estudio ya que el investigador era docente del mismo. El primer instrumento que se utilizó fue una entrevista inicial abierta realizada a cada uno de los 4 profesores de EF que componen el departamento. Se recoge información acerca de la percepción y el trabajo de las CCBB llevado a cabo en el día a día del aula. Cinco fueron las cuestiones generales que se plantearon a cada uno de los docentes sobre la concepción práctica de este elemento curricular, a partir de las cuales derivaron otras adyacentes. 1- ¿Cómo crees que contribuyes a las CCBB en el aula? ¿Podrías poner varios ejemplos concretos? 2- ¿Consideras que el área de la EF tiene una labor fundamental para este fin? ¿Diferente a otras materias? ¿Por qué? 3- ¿La metodología es un aspecto relevante y decisivo para su contribución? ¿Podrías poner un ejemplo? 4- ¿Es importante la relación con docentes de otras materias? ¿Lo haces? 5- ¿Crees que a través de su implantación en el aula el alumnado se implica más hacia el aprendizaje? ¿Mejora su relación interpersonal? El segundo instrumento que se utiliza es un diario de observación, en el que mediante el análisis de las clases propias y de las de los compañeros en los 4 cursos de secundaria se registran 7 variables: 1- Objetivos de la sesión, 2- Actividades, 3- Explicación de la sesión al alumno por parte del docente, 4- Grado de coherencia de los contenidos abordados, 5- Relación de trabajo interdisciplinar, 6- Vinculación con otro tipo de aprendizajes, 7- Reflexión/evaluación. Finalmente y como cierre del curso escolar, en función de todo el proceso de seguimiento llevado a cabo, se realiza un grupo de discusión para cada uno de los 4 cursos con los que hemos trabajado, 1º, 2º, 3º y 4º. Este se realiza en una sesión final para cada una de las clases, y se plantean las siguientes preguntas: 1 ¿Es la EF diferente al resto de materias? ¿Por qué? 2- ¿La EF influye en que fuera del aula realicéis más actividad física? ¿Por qué? 3- ¿Consideráis importante trabajar otras aspectos además de lo motriz (actividades orales, tareas de indagación, razonamiento)? ¿Por qué? 4- ¿Qué he aprendido este curso en EF? ¿Cuáles son las actividades en las que más aprendo? Estos instrumentos utilizados en tres claras partes del proceso (inicial, intermedia y final) han sido paralelos a la recogida de datos a través de los cuestionarios de equipo directivo y docentes de EF con el fin de realizar una triangulación y saturación de los mismos.

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Toda la información recogida a través de estos instrumentos se agrupa en cuatro categorías vinculadas a los ítems de los que consta cada uno de los dos cuestionarios: 1- Percepción del alumno del trabajo realizado, 2- Disparidad de criterios entre docentes, 3- Grado de relación entre compañeros de aula, 4- Trabajo vinculado a la competencia motriz. A continuación se presenta un ejemplo de codificación para cada uno de los 3 instrumentos utilizados en el estudio de caso. EPEF1º: Entrevista profesor educación física 1º curso, DP1º: Diario del profesor 1º curso, GD1º: Grupo de discusión 1º curso.

Diseño y Procedimiento

El proceso consta de dos partes bien diferenciadas, una primera en la que los equipos directivos y los profesores de EF de los centros cumplimentan un cuestionario, y otra, en la que el investigador, como docente de EF del centro, realiza el estudio de caso a lo largo del curso escolar 2012-2013. Todo el proceso se llevó a cabo de forma paralela. Acorde a la metodología empleada, todo el procedimiento se realizó presencialmente, con el fin de explicar el protocolo de respuesta y aclarar aquellas cuestiones que les pudieran surgir más dudas. En la primera parte del proceso, tanto la entrega como la recogida de los cuestionarios, se estructuró mediante citas concertadas, obteniendo así información sobre las dificultades encontradas por el profesorado.

Procedimiento de Análisis de Resultados

Los datos cualitativos se analizaron mediante el análisis de la temática del contenido (Libarkin & Kurdziel, 2002) y la comparación constante entre los datos (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). El análisis del contenido se centró en la búsqueda de patrones en el texto, codificando los extractos coincidentes con los elementos cruzados (Saldaña, 2009). Los temas, que surgieron en el primer análisis independiente, fueron examinados críticamente por todos los investigadores a través de un diálogo reflexivo. La confiabilidad fue apoyada a través de la retroalimentación continua y el análisis participativo por parte de los investigadores que revisaron y perfeccionaron las categorías emergentes, por lo que los resultados podrían ser consideradas confiables, creíbles, y transferible (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). El objetivo era

34 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas utilizar la información obtenida para dotarla de una mayor comprensibilidad a través de la transferencia de los resultados. Las categorías que surgieron de los datos se presentan de forma explícita a través de la sección de resultados y con el apoyo de varios ejemplos de textos (Cohn, 1991). Para el análisis de los resultados se ha categorizado la información en una serie de variables, que estructuran tanto los cuestionarios cumplimentados como el estudio de caso. Posteriormente se ha realizado una comparación de los 2 tipos de análisis a partir de la triangulación y saturación de datos. Todos los datos obtenidos han sido analizados por el programa de computación Weft-QDA, que ha permitido filtrar, categorizar y saturar la información relativa tanto a las preguntas semiabiertas del cuestionario como a los instrumentos utilizados en el estudio de caso.

Resultados

Los resultados se analizan a partir de los cuestionarios utilizados (equipo directivo y docentes de EF) y de las cuatro categorías comunes generadas para los tres instrumentos de registro de datos empleados en el estudio de caso.

Resultados del Equipo Directivo

Tres cuartas partes de los equipos directivos valoran de manera positiva la implantación de un proyecto de competencias en su centro educativo, a pesar de que reconocen no abordarlo en los claustros de profesores. Respecto al tratamiento de la evaluación de las CCBB en las sesiones de evaluación trimestrales, solamente un 20% de los equipos directivos admiten su desarrollo, reconociendo que si se trata el tema es de manera superficial, siendo el especialista del área el que da su veredicto sobre la competencia concreta, en lugar de realizarlo de manera conjunta. Del mismo modo, gran parte de los equipos directivos admiten que el trabajo de las competencias no solamente puede generar un mayor aprendizaje en el alumno, sino que también en el profesorado, encontrándose este hecho estrechamente vinculado con la formación permanente.

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Solamente una tercera parte de los equipos directivos afirman establecer de manera estructurada una coordinación por cursos de los aspectos a los que se tiene que contribuir, aunque asienten que sería algo idóneo, ya que permitiría determinar aspectos comunes como: pautas de entrega de trabajos, criterios ortográficos… Sin embargo, son algo más reticentes en relación a la hora de vincular el trabajo de las competencias con el hecho de que el alumno coevalúe a los demás, afirmando que al final la mayor parte de la calificación es responsabilidad del alumnado. Es destacable el hecho de la percepción que tienen los equipos directivos acerca de las garantías que ofrecería plantear un proceso de contribución a las CCBB, ya que permitiría establecer un sistema de evaluación consensuado y riguroso a lo largo de la etapa.

Análisis Descriptivo: Cuestionario del Docente de EF

El profesorado de EF presenta un planteamiento menos uniforme y más dispar que el de los equipos directivos en relación con el trabajo de las CCBB en el aula, mostrando una inconformidad elevada acerca de la no incorporación de una competencia motriz. Sin embargo, y pesar de que reconocen que no siempre lo llevan a cabo, relacionan el trabajo de las competencias con la implantación de una metodología cooperativa en el aula, vinculada a una calificación rigurosa. Analizando las respuestas de los docentes, se observa una confusión entre el término evaluación y calificación, teniendo una tendencia manifiesta a poner una nota a todas las actividades que se realizan, normalmente asociadas a un test o prueba de condición física. Del mismo modo se vincula el trabajo de las competencias con la proposición de contenidos novedosos en el aula, aunque manifiestan que el hecho de plantear una mayor cantidad de actividades que no sean tradicionales no va a provocar que los alumnos aprendan más. Al contrario que pasaba con los equipos directivos que asociaban el trabajo de las nuevas tecnologías con una mayor contribución a las competencias, los docentes de EF no manifiestan esta opinión, afirmando que el área de la EF es diferente y que se basa principalmente en el ámbito motriz. A pesar de ello, valoran de manera positiva el trabajo de las competencias en el área de la EF desde una visión amplia hacia la consecución del aprendizaje, aunque

36 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas consideran que es preciso acordar previamente una línea de trabajo entre los docentes de EF antes que hacerlo con el resto de materias.

Resultados del Estudio de Caso

Este tipo de análisis responde a los datos obtenidos en la realización del estudio de caso único, utilizando cuatro categorías en la presentación de los resultados a partir de la triangulación y saturación de los 3 instrumentos de recogida utilizados. En cada una de las categorías se han delimitado una serie de extractos de texto, lo que favorece establecer la discriminación y saturación de la información obtenida. Por lo tanto, dentro de cada una de las categorías comunes se indican textos concretos de cada uno de los instrumentos, interrelacionado los datos obtenidos de cada una de las fuentes.

En relación con la competencia motriz (165 extractos de texto totales obtenidos)

A pesar de que el cuerpo y el movimiento son los ejes fundamentales sobre los que gira el área de EF, son otros muchos aspectos lo que se tienen que trabajar en la materia para contribuir a las competencias. Sin embargo, se observa cómo la valoración que hace cada miembro del departamento sobre este tema es muy diferente:

“Nuestra nota debe basarse fundamentalmente en el aspecto motriz” […] “Lo de las CCBB suena bien pero son cosas que se tienen que valorar aparte, es algo muy difícil” (EPEF4º).

“Considero fundamental que trabajemos en función de las CCBB, no solamente nosotros sino desde todas las áreas” […] “Estoy de acuerdo en que la EF es diferente, pero esto no tiene que servir de excusa para decir que las Competencias no sirven o que es imposible evaluarlas” (EPEF2º).

Estas valoraciones previas realizadas al comienzo del curso, tienen su repercusión en la manera en la que los profesores entienden e imparten sus clases:

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“Las clases consisten fundamentalmente en que el alumno haga los test que le corresponde, el resto de tiempo es libre […]” “No se desarrollan actividades en las que el alumno se implique, resuelva, adquiera autonomía. Es mero reproductor de lo que el profesor le dice que hay que hacer” (DP4º).

“Existe una programación variada, los contenidos que se plantean son variados y sinceramente al alumnado se le ve mucho más motivado” (DP2º).

Si atendemos a la percepción y valoración que realizan los alumnos al finalizar el curso, observamos la coherencia existente con lo analizado:

“Ha sido lo de siempre […], los chicos jugando al fútbol, las chicas al voley y a los que menos nos gusta el deporte a pasarlo mal con las pruebas físicas”. (GD4º).

Sin embargo, la motivación no siempre era baja, aunque el trabajo se vinculara únicamente al ámbito motriz:

“Para mí la “gimnasia” es la mejor asignatura, yo saco buenas notas siempre” […], [Investigador:] ¿Qué has aprendido? “Aprender…mmmm, a saltar a correr.. “[…]. (GD4º).

Lo que sí que se observa de forma clara es una motivación elevada hacia el curso en el que se han trabajado más aspectos que los únicamente motrices:

“Ha sido muy diferente […]. “Hemos practicado una gran cantidad de deportes y tareas, hemos trabajado en equipo y hemos hecho muchas exposiciones orales”. “He conseguido hacer todo lo que proponía el profesor y nunca he tirado la toalla” […]. [Investigador:] “¿Estas más motivada?” “Mucho más, ¡otros años he suspendido por no saltar mucho o no lanzar muy lejos el balón, y otras veces aprobaba y ¡no sabía muy bien por qué!” (GD2º).

38 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas

Disparidad de criterios entre docentes (174 extractos de texto totales obtenidos)

Aunque un departamento debe regirse por el seguimiento de una programación didáctica común en la que se detallen los contenidos a impartir así como los procedimientos de evaluación y de calificación utilizados, se observa como la realidad práctica demuestra otra cosa bien diferente. Este aspecto se ha contrastado en cada uno de los instrumentos de recogida de datos:

“Estoy de acuerdo con la filosofía que sustenta el trabajo de las competencias, sin embargo, considero que es verdaderamente difícil hacer una contribución real que implique a varias áreas sin que el centro tenga un proyecto estructurado”. “Yo por mi parte siempre propongo actividades variadas que motiven al alumno, (EPEF3º).

“Propone diferentes deportes alternativos en cada trimestre, pero al final la calificación siempre es la misma: teoría, práctica y parte de comportamiento” […] (DP3º).

Atendiendo al curso de 1º, el profesor manifiesta abiertamente que no trabaja las CCBB, abogando que son modas como otras y que no le va a hacer cambiar lo que le funciona y le ha servido durante tantos años. Así, y en relación a su programación del curso:

“¿Competencias? Es una idea que se oye ahora por todos los sitios, pero creo que no se os puede ir la cabeza ahora con eso […]”. “Bastantes cosas tenemos que trabajar en EF como para meternos en más berenjenales, que lo haga el de Lengua o la de Matemáticas, aquí hay que moverse y hacer deporte, sin demasiada teoría” (EPEF1º).

“No se atiende ni a las competencias ni a la programación, ya que cada día se hace una cosa diferente: baloncesto, fútbol, carrera…Los alumnos entienden la asignatura como un juego o tiempo libre” (DP1º).

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Grado de relación entre compañeros de aula (183 extractos de texto totales obtenidos)

El trabajo en grupo y el buen clima en el aula son considerados como unos de los factores fundamentales para poder contribuir a las competencias. Si hay que determinar aspectos comunes para todas las áreas y el alumno tiene que tener autonomía y saber trabajar en grupo, es necesario desarrollar estrategias en el aula que vayan en esta línea. Analizadas cada una de las clases se observa como este hecho varía significativamente, debido en parte a la metodología empleada:

“A la clase le gusta la asignatura, aunque está muy desestructurada”. No hay planificación de los contenidos lo que repercute en una menor organización y respeto a las normas de clase y alumnado” (DP1º).

“Se percibe desde el primer día el respeto que se tienen entre todos los miembros de la clase”. “Todas las Unidades se plantean desde un reto grupal, lo que provoca que los alumnos estén mucho más motivados para el siguiente trabajo” […] (DP2º).

“A la profesora se la respeta mucho y deja claras las normas de comportamiento desde el primer día. “Alguna vez surge alguna discusión porque los contenidos se abordan desde un enfoque competitivo, pero suelen trabajar juntos, como cuando se arbitran u organizan campeonatos” (DP3º).

“La relación interpersonal en la clase apenas existe, ya que la mayor parte del tiempo se trabajan test físicos individuales” (DP4º).

Existe una consonancia entre los datos recogidos en el diario del investigador y la percepción de las diferentes clases establecida en los grupos de discusión:

Me ha gustado mucho este curso, y sobre todo trabajar en grupo, ya que he conseguido cosas que pensaba que eran imposibles (DP2º).

40 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas

A mí me gusta Educación Física, lo que pasa es que Roberto y Santi nunca paran de insultarme y el profe no les dice nada. (DP1º).

En Educación Física paso buenos ratos con mis amigas […] [Investigador:] ¿Trabajáis en grupo? En grupo, si siempre con mis amigas (risas) (DP4º).

Percepción del alumno del trabajo realizado (167 extractos de texto totales obtenidos)

Analizados todos los datos correspondientes a la observación diaria de las clases y a la actuación y percepción del profesorado acerca de las CCBB, es fundamental contrastar las valoraciones que realiza el alumnado una vez ha tenido la vivencia a lo largo del curso escolar:

“Me he divertido y lo he pasado muy bien, ya que hemos practicado mucho ejercicio y deportes […]” “Lo mejor es que hemos hecho un montón de actividades fuera de clase: ir a la nieve, correr fuera, piscina […]” (GP1º).

“Trabajar en grupos para mí ha sido lo mejor de la asignatura […] nos ha servido para saber lo que hacen los demás y repartirnos mucho mejor el trabajo” (GD2º).

“Hemos practicado un montón de deportes, aunque algunas veces tanto competir y haces pruebas aburre un poco” (GD3º).

“Odio y odiaré la asignatura de EF, ya que desde el principio de curso ya se la nota que voy a tener haga lo que haga y me esfuerce lo que me esfuerce” (GD4º).

Discusión y Conclusiones

Dando respuesta al objetivo número uno, hemos observado en la presente investigación como la percepción que tienen los equipos directivos acerca de las CCBB es positiva, valorando este elemento curricular como una oportunidad para crear un consenso en el centro sobre los aspectos a los que hay que contribuir. Sin embargo, los directivos reconocen carecer de

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 41 instrumentos y estrategias que favorezcan la elaboración de protocolos concretos de actuación. En este sentido, Halasz and Alain (2011) ratifican la imposibilidad que tiene exigir desde la Administración que los centros realicen una evaluación basada en competencias cuando no se han facilitado las herramientas necesarias para conseguirlo. Este hecho, en base a lo que establecen algunos autores como Pérez- Pueyo (2012c), provoca que ante la falta de recursos y la incoherencia en el planteamiento, sean los especialistas de cada área quienes den la valoración de contribución sobre la competencia correspondiente. Los equipos directivos relacionan el trabajo de las competencias con un aprendizaje mayor por parte del alumno y una formación permanente por parte del profesorado, lo que contrapone la idea de que la mayor parte del profesorado no trabaja las competencias porque realmente no cree que vayan a suponer algo positivo para el aprendizaje (Hortigüela, Abella, & Pérez-Pueyo, 2015; Standage, Duda, & Ntoumanis, 2003). Del mismo modo, en función a algunas de las pretensiones fundamentales que conlleva el trabajo de las competencias, (Grubb, 2012; Vermeulen, Castelijns, Kools, & Koster, 2012), los equipos directivos consideran que es fundamental el establecimiento de una serie de criterios comunes que garantizasen a qué se debe contribuir con cada competencia en cada uno de los cursos, generándose así un proceso de consenso en el centro. Dando respuesta al segundo objetivo y en relación con el profesorado de EF, se ha observado cómo la percepción de estos docentes es más dispar que la de los equipos directivos, en parte por la no incorporación de una competencia motriz (Méndez, Mañana, & Sierra, 2012). Se parte de la idea de que lo fundamental es trabajar motrizmente, y a partir de ahí se podrá contribuir a otros aspectos. En este sentido, se aprecia una tendencia directa hacia la exclusiva calificación, no sabiendo diferenciar en muchos casos este término del de evaluación. Tal y como establece Pérez-Pueyo (2013a), este aspecto es uno de los principales errores que se comenten a la hora de trabajar con las competencias, y que rompe la idea que derivan de las mismas, basada en la contribución. No obstante, los docentes de esta área vinculan el trabajo de las competencias con la propuesta de contenidos variados, pero mostrando un cierto carácter inductista. Finalmente, el estudio de caso realizado en la investigación ha reflejado una disparidad de criterios elevada entre los 4 componentes del departamento, no contribuyendo en 2 de los cursos a las CCBB y no

42 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas reflejando nada de este elemento curricular en la programación. El ámbito motriz, salvo en 2º curso, se entiende como algo fundamental en el área, siendo escasamente relacionado con otros ámbitos de aprendizaje. En cuanto a las percepciones del alumnado, se concluye que independientemente de su nivel de habilidad motriz o de la calificación obtenida en la asignatura, el alumnado refleja un cansancio y aburrimiento cuando únicamente se trabajan test físicos y deportes. Sin embargo, cuando los contenidos son novedosos, variados y permiten su implicación en el proceso y el desarrollo de una mayor autonomía, la valoración es más positiva, vinculándose así su aprendizaje, en mayor medida, con la trasferencia a la realidad social (Gómez-Pimpollo, Pérez-Pintado, & Arreaza, 2007; Gitomer, Brown, & Bonett, 2011). Consideramos que este artículo puede ser interesante para todos aquellos responsables de la formación docente de la Administración Educativa, ya que alerta sobre la necesidad que manifiesta el docente a la hora de comprender cómo ha de implantarse el trabajo real de competencias en el aula. Del mismo modo, también puede ser de interés para todos aquellos docentes de la etapa de Primaria y/o de Secundaria motivados hacia el cambio en la concepción metodológica y evaluativa que requiere este elemento curricular. La investigación presenta algunas limitaciones. En primer lugar, únicamente atiende a la percepción del docente y del estudiante, por lo que sería necesario para futuras investigaciones valorar la opinión de las familias o de otros sectores educativos. Por otro lado, se analizan únicamente centros educativos de la etapa de Secundaria, pudiendo también ser interesante contrastar los datos con colegios de Primaria. Sería también conveniente aumentar los participantes con centros de fuera de la ciudad de Burgos, buscando una mayor generalización de los resultados.

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 43

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Ley Orgánica de Educación. LOE 2/2006. Boletín Oficial del Estado de 4 de mayo de 2006. Recuperado de http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2006/05/04/pdfs/A17158-17207.pdf Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de Calidad Educativa. LOMCE 8/2013. Boletín Oficial del Estado de 10 de Diciembre de 2013. Recuperado de http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2013/12/10/pdfs/BOE-A-2013- 12886.pdf Lozano, A., Boni, A., Peris, J., & Hueso, A. (2012). Competencies in Higher Education: A critical Analysis from the capabilities approach. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 46(1), 132-147. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9752.2011.00839.x Lleixá, T. (2007). Educación física y competencias básicas: contribución del área a la adquisición de las competencias básicas del currículo. Tándem: Didáctica de la Educación Física, 23, 31-37. Recuperado de http://www.grao.com/revistas/tandem/023-que-educacion-fisica- reflexiones-en-tiempos-de-cambio/educacion-fisica-y-competencias- basicas-contribucion-del-area-a-la-adquisicion-de-las-competencias- basicas-del-curriculo Moya, J., & F. Luengo, (2009) Las competencias básicas en la práctica. Madrid, Proyecto Atlántida. MEC (2007). PISA, 2006. Programa para la evaluación internacional de alumnos de la OCDE. Informe Español. Centro de Publicaciones, Secretaría General Técnica. Méndez, A., & López, T. (2009). Competencias básicas: sobre la exclusión de la competencia motriz y las aportaciones desde la Educación Física. Retos: Nuevas Tendencias en Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación, 16, 51-57. Recuperado de http://retos.org/numero_15/frame16-10.html Méndez, A.; Mañana, J., & B. Sierra, A (2012). Necesidad y propuesta de un procedimiento para programar por Competencias Básicas. Aula Abierta, 40(3), 33-46. Recuperado de http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3994512 OCDE, (2006). PISA 2006. Marco de la evaluación. Conocimientos y habilidades en Ciencias, Matemáticas y Lectura. Madrid, Santillana. Recuperado de http://www.oecd.org/pisa/publicacionesdepisaenespaol.htm

46 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas

OCDE, (2009). PISA 2009. Programa para la evaluación internacional de los alumnos. Informe Español. Recuperado de http://iaqse.caib.es/documents/aval2009-10/pisa2009-informe- espanol.pdf Parlamento Europeo, (2006). Recomendación del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo sobre las competencias clave para el aprendizaje permanente. Diario Oficial de la Unión europea (2006/962/CE). Recuperado de http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/ES/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32006H0962&from=ES Pérez-Pueyo, A. & Casanova, P. (2010). La programación de las Competencias Básicas en colegio de infantil y primaria. Una propuesta de secuenciación por ciclos. Madrid: CEP. Pérez-Pueyo, A. (2012a). Análisis de las diferentes propuestas de desarrollo de las competencias básicas. Revista Española de Educación Física y Deportes, 397, 13-36. Recuperado de http://www.consejo- colef.es/revista-reefd/archivo-revista-reefd/94--revista-397.html Pérez-Pueyo, A. (2012b). Las competencias básicas en EF. ¿Evaluación o calificación? Revista Española de Educación Física y Deportes, 397, 37-49. Recuperado de http://www.consejo-colef.es/revista- reefd/archivo-revista-reefd/94--revista-397.html Pérez-Pueyo, A. (2012c) .Propuesta de desarrollo de las competencias básicas en la ESO: desde la secuenciación del centro, la contribución de las materias y la evaluación del profesor de educación física y el tutor. Revista Española de Educación Física y Deportes, 398, 13-33. Recuperado de http://www.consejo-colef.es/revista-reefd/archivo- revista-reefd/103--revista-398.html Pérez-Pueyo, A. (coord.) (2013a). Programar y evaluar competencias básicas en 15 pasos. Barcelona: Graó. Pérez-Pueyo, A. (coord.) (2013b). Qué son las Competencias Básicas y cómo se trabajan en España. Diferentes maneras de llevarlas de la teoría al aula. Hacia el Proyecto INCOBA. León: Actitudes Profesionales S. L. Pepper, D. (2011). Assessing key competences across the curriculum and Europe» en European Journal of Education, 46 (3), 335-353. doi:10.1111/j.1465-3435.2011.01484.x Pharo, E., & Bridle, K. (2012). Does interdisciplinarity exist behind the façade of traditional disciplines? A study of natural resource

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management teaching. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 36(1), 65-80. doi:10.1080/03098265.2011.575127 Polo, I., (2010). La evaluación de las competencias básicas. Revista de la Asociación de Inspectores de Educación de España, 12(3), 34-45. Recuperado de http://www.adide.org/revista/index.php?option=com_content&task= view&id=339&Itemid=68 Proyecto Atántida (2013). Guía para la formación en centros sobre las competencias básicas. Recuparado de http://www.proyectoatlantida.net/ Real Decreto 126/2014, de 28 de febrero, por el que se establece el currículo básico de la Educación Primaria. (BOE de 1 de Marzo de 2014). Recuperado de https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE- A-2014-2222 Saldaña, J. (2009). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Sarramona, J. (2004). Las Competencias Básicas en la Educación Obligatoria. Barcelona: CEAC. Sebastiani, M., Blázquez, D., & Borrachina, J. (2009). Concepto y naturaleza de las competencias. En D. Blázquez, & M. Sebastiani (Eds.), Enseñar por competencias en educación física. (pp. 120-132). Barcelona: Inde. Standage, M., Duda, J., & Ntoumanis, N. (2003). Predicting motivational regulations in physical education: The interplay between dispositional goal orientations, motivational climate and perceived competence. Journal of Sports Sciences, 21(8), 631-647. doi:10.1080/0264041031000101962 Vermeulen, M., Castelijns, J., Kools, Q., & B. Koster. (2012) Measuring student teachers' basic psychological need. Journal of Education for Teaching, 38(4), 453-467. doi:10.1080/02607476.2012.688556 Zabala, A., & Arnau, L. (2007). Cómo aprender y enseñar competencias. Barcelona: Graó. Zagalaz, M. L., & J. Cachón, (2009). Educación física. En M.L. Zagalaz, J. Cachón & A. Lara (Eds.), Desarrollo cultural en la enseñanza básica. La mediación del profesorado a través de las distintas materias (pp. 78-91). Torredonjimeno: Logos.

48 Hortigüela et al. – Competencias Básicas

David Hortigüela Alcalá is Assistance Professor in de Department of Specifics Training at University of Burgos, Spain. ORCID id: 0000-0001- 5951-758X

Ángel Pérez Pueyo is Assistance Professor in the Department of Physical Education and Sports at University of León, Spain.

Víctor Abella García is Assistance Professor in the Department of Education Sciences at University of Burgos, Spain

Contact Address: David Hortigüela Alcalá, Facultad de Educación, C/Villadiego s/n, 09001 Burgos (Burgos), Spain. Email: [email protected]

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Graduate Students’ Construction of Researcher Identities Explored Through Discourse Analysis

C. Amelia Davis1 & Jessica N. Lester2

1) Department of Curriculum, Foundations & Reading, Georgia Southern University, United States. 2) Department of Counseling & Educational Psychology, Indiana University, United States.

Date of publication: February 28th, 2016 Edition period: October 2015 - February 2016

To cite this article: Davis, C. A., & Lester, J. N. (2016). Graduate Students’ Construction of Researcher Identities Explored Through Discourse Analysis. Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1), 49-76. doi:10.17583/qre.2016.1473

To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/qre.2016.1473

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 49-76

Graduate Students’ Construction of Researcher Identities Explored Through Discourse Analysis

C. Amelia Davis Jessica N. Lester Georgia Southern University Indiana University

(Received: 12 March 2015; Accepted: 20 November 2015; Published: 28 February 2016)

Abstract

While many research methods courses challenge students to make sense of their own researcher identities as they relate to research paradigms and perspectives, there is a lack of research that examines how students actually go about constructing these identities, particularly at the level of discourse. In this study, we attended to graduate students’ talk in an introductory research methods course, taking note of how students used particular discursive resources to construct a research identity in online classroom discussions. We analyzed 93 discussion posts students were asked to make in response to a discussion board prompt after completing assigned readings related to research paradigms and researcher identity. We identified two discursive patterns through our analysis: 1) minimizing knowledge, and 2) justifying paradigmatic orientations. Our findings highlight how being asked to talk about one’s research identity is a potentially fragile task, as evidenced by disclaimers of ‘knowing’, and justifications. We highlight implications for teaching research methodology, particularly qualitative methods courses.

Keywords: discourse analysis, research methods, qualitative research, researcher identity, online discussions, graduate education

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1473 Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 49-76

Construcción de Identidades de Investigador de Estudiantes Postgrado Explorado a través de Análisis del Discurso

C. Amelia Davis Jessica N. Lester Georgia Southern University Indiana University

(Recibido: 12 de marzo de 2015; Aceptado: 20 de noviembre de 2015; Publicado: 28 de febrero de 2016)

Resumen

Aunque muchos cursos de métodos de investigación retan a los estudiantes a dar sentido a sus propias identidades como investigadores con respecto a paradigmas y perpectivas de investigación, hay una falta de investigaciónes que examinan cómo los estudiantes actualmente construyen esas identidades, en particular a nivel del discurso. En este estudio atendimos a las conversaciónes de los estudiantes de postgrado en cursos de la introducción a métodos de investigación, tomando nota de como los estudiantes utilizan recursos discursivos para construir una identidad de investigador en los debates de clases en línea. Analizamos 93 mensajes que estudiantes completaron en respuesta a un aviso despues de terminar lecturas asignadas relacionadas a paradigmas de investigación y la identidad de investigador. Se identificaron dos modelos discursivos a través del análisis: 1) minimizar el conocimiento, y 2) justificando conclusiones paradigmicas. Nuestros resultados destacan como preguntarle a uno de hablar de su propia identidad de investigador es una tarea potencialmente frágil, como lo demuestran las renuncias de ‘conocimiento’, y que evoca las justificanciones y las conexiones a la vida cotidiana de los estudiantes. Destacamos implicaciones para la enseñanza de metodología de investigación, en particular cursos de métodos cualitativos.

Palabras clave: análisis del discurso, métodos de investigación, investigación cualitativa, identidad de investigador, discusiones en línea, educacion postgrado

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1473 Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 51

esearch around teaching research methods has pointed to the complexities of teaching such courses, particularly as they involve R introducing new terminology, procedures and practices (Ball & Pelco, 2005) to students who may have limited exposure to and interest in the research process. The literature on teaching research methods has highlighted a tension between teaching research courses for students interested solely in the consumption of research versus the production of research (Hardcastle & Bisman, 2003). Moreover, there remains little consensus around what teaching research methods should actually entail (Early, 2014). Nonetheless, many research methods courses, particularly qualitative research methods courses, invite (and even require) students to make sense of their own research identities as they relate to research paradigms and perspectives. However, little research exists that examines how students actually go about doing this at the level of discourse. In other words, how do graduate students enrolled in an introductory research methods course discursively navigate their research identities? How do students go about constructing a research identity for themselves? The above questions were the focus of our discourse analysis study, which was informed by discursive psychology (Edwards & Potter, 1993) and conversation analysis (Sacks, 1992). We attended to the students’ micro-level discourses, taking note of how they used particular discursive resources (e.g., hedges) to construct a research identity in online classroom discussions. By using discussion board posts from online classes, participants used only online talk, in written form, to accomplish various tasks. A number of studies of online support groups have drawn upon discourse analysis and discursive psychology specifically to explore questions such as how participants construct identities through talk, justify deviant or non-standard behaviors, and validate their membership in a group (e.g., Gavin, Rodham, & Poyer, 2008; Horne & Wiggins, 2009; Varga & Paulus, 2014); as of yet, however, no such study has examined how graduate students work up their research identities. Our aim, then, was to better understand how students go about displaying their orientations to research paradigms in their online talk.

52 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction

Literature Review

There is a small, yet growing body of research that focuses on the place of student identity and research methods courses specifically in higher education. We have chosen to highlight that research here as it relates to transitioning to researcher, identifying with a research tradition, developing a research identity, and identity in online spaces. Coryell et al. (2013) carried out a narrative analysis of doctoral students’ early experiences with learning how to carry out research. Specifically, the researchers collected the personal narratives of 24 doctoral students, all of who were enrolled in a mixed methods research course. They found that the students displayed anxieties in their stories, particularly around: “a) their role in the research, b) their ability to do the research, c) the learning process of becoming a researcher, and d) how to discern whether their research was, in fact, legitimate” (p. 372). The researchers suggested that emotions, such as anxiety, play a central role in early research experiences and highlighted the importance of supporting graduate students as their research identity unfolds. Metz’s (2001) report on a seminar for an interdisciplinary group of doctoral students preparing for careers in educational research found when it came to identifying with a particular research tradition, students’ allegiances were closely connected to their social background, including their race/ethnicity, social class, and gender. Metz further noted that as the instructor of the seminar, it was necessary to acknowledge that social backgrounds played a role in how students identified with a research tradition. He used this knowledge to push students beyond their individual allegiances, asking them to “tolerate, even to appreciate ambiguity” different forms of research (p. 15). Similarly, Murakami-Ramalho, Piert, and Militello (2008) chronicled their individual and collective journeys of developing a research identity as graduate students of color. They noted, like Metz (2001), that social background laid the foundation for the construction of research identities. Along with this, Murakami-Ramalho, Piert and Militello (2008) also suggested that though graduate students only begin to develop their research identity upon entering graduate school, they do not enter an academic context as blank slates. The seeds, they argued, have already been planted through their personal background and life experiences and only

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 53 need to be cultivated. Graduate school, then, is a space for that cultivation and can provide students with the skills, language, and refinement to articulate their research identity. Yet, while a great deal of attention has been given to developing the attributes of graduates, or what is known as “work-ready skills” that presumably will make a graduate successful (Daniels & Brooker 2014, p. 67), far less attention has been given to “student identity and the shaping of graduates through graduate attributes” (p. 71). Daniels and Brooker suggested that graduate attributes and student identity are intertwined and that developing their identity is an area that students in higher education should be actively reflecting upon in order to understand the role they have in shaping it. Research conducted in online spaces has been particularly relevant to this body of research. For instance, Delahunty (2012) considered how identity was constructed online through written texts posted to forums rather than in a physical space. Through her study, Delahunty found that post-graduate students were quick to position themselves in early forums using both their professional identity and credentials to develop and lay claim to their online identities. She began to develop a definition of identity formation in online contexts that included three broad, overlapping concepts. First, identity was presumed to be complex and to take on different appearances over time and space. Second, identity was believed to be socially formed, meaning it is “socially constructed in dialogue” and further shaped by the perceptions of self and other, personal values and experiences (Delahunty, 2012, p. 409). Finally, identity was thought to be constructed through language. Similarly, Agee and Smith (2011) conducted a mixed methods study examining how doctoral level students made sense of asynchronous online discussions in a research methods course. These asynchronous discussions occurred in addition to the face-to-face component of the course, with the data analyzed including three online discussions and the 15 participating students’ self-evaluations. The researchers focused on identifying what they called “sociocognitive” tools (p. 303), such as argumentation structures and/or posing clarifying questions, and found that students oriented to online spaces as being a site for rich dialogue, with ample opportunity to draw upon a variety of tools and strategies for making sense of theoretical ideas and methods.

54 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction

As discussed here, there is a growing body of discourse-oriented research that explores the ways in which university students go about negotiating their identities through talk and text. Discourse research has focused on a variety of university environments, including office hours (Limberg, 2007), blogs (Lester & Paulus, 2011; Paulus & Lester, 2013), face-to-face tutorials and small group discussions (Benwell & Stokoe, 2002, 2005; Cromdal, Tholander, & Aronsson, 2007), and textbook marginalia (Attenborough, 2011). Much of this research has pointed to how students delicately display their knowledge and even resist displaying ‘knowing’ and ‘learning’ for others. Furthermore, across much of this discourse-oriented research, there has been an explicit focus on how students go about ‘being students’ at the level of discourse. To date, however, relatively little research has examined how graduate students in research methods courses go about negotiating their research identities at the level of discourse, particularly when they are asked to do so in relationship to research paradigms. Thus, in this study, we explicitly considered how students went about negotiating their identities as researchers at the level of discourse.

Theoretical and Methodological Perspective

A discursive psychology perspective served as our theoretical and methodological lens (Potter & Wetherell, 1987). Within a discursive psychology perspective, discourse is presumed to be the medium of human interaction (Potter, 2012). Within this perspective, it is assumed that language functions to do something, rather than simply representing an internal, mental state. A discursive psychology approach is thus one in which the analyst attends to how actions are accomplished in and through particular language choices, such as how people construct facts, account for their actions, and manage personal interests and stake (Edwards & Potter, 1993). Such an orientation fundamentally shapes how an analyst orients to language-based data and the analysis process, as it leads them to consider the social function of the language produced. Historically, discursive psychology has focused on respecifying psychological constructs, such as identity or memory, as discursive entities; that is, constructs made real in and through interaction (Hepburn & Wiggins, 2005; Lester, 2011, 2014). More particularly, a discursive psychology perspective views discourse as

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 55 being: 1) action-oriented, 2) constructed by and through the conversational features employed in a given interaction, and 3) situated within a particular interaction. As such, in carrying out this study, we oriented to the students’ interactions on the discussion boards as being as action-oriented rather than representative of underlying cognitive or emotional states (Edwards & Potter, 1992). Furthermore, contemporary discursive psychology often draws upon conversation analysis to make sense of the sequential organization of talk (Sacks, 1992). Conversation analysis is a methodological approach that examines the sequential organization of talk and considers how talk is designed to accomplish social actions. With close linkages to ethnomethodology, conversation analysis has been used widely to study everyday and institutional talk. It has also begun to be more broadly used in the study of online talk, as well as other digital domains (Giles, Stommel, Paulus, Lester, & Reed, 2015). Thus, in our study, our focus was shaped by many of the central principles of conversation analysis.

Method

We conducted a discourse analysis (Wood & Kroger, 2000) informed by a discursive psychology perspective (Potter & Wetherell, 1987) and conversation analysis (Sacks, 1992). The concept of discourse analysis builds on a social constructionist perspective where language is seen as constitutive of a social reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). Language is structured into discourse and discourses have power implications in that they structure what one holds as true and what one acts upon (Ahl, 2002; Foucault, 1972); thus, discourses are not neutral. For us, discourse analysis involved asking questions about how language, at a given time and place, was used to build identity (Stokoe, 2012). Using this concept of discourse allowed us to explore the language taken up in online discussion boards and examine how those discourses functioned to produce graduate students’ research identities. Data included the content of online discussion posts made by students who were enrolled in a graduate level introductory educational research course at a regional southeastern university in the United States. This course was required for all master’s level students and for all educational specialist and doctoral level students who had not had the course

56 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction requirement waived. The course served as an introduction to research and was intended to provide master’s level students with a comprehensive overview of topics related to research as it is applied in educational settings. It was the only required research course for the master’s degree. The overall goal of the course was to provide an introduction to empirical research and a variety of research approaches common in the field of education. Emphasis was placed on both quantitative and qualitative research methods, especially in regards to applied research in education. This research involved no more than minimal risk to the participants, with no adverse affects on the rights and welfare of the participants. As such, the Institutional Review Board waived informed consent for this study. Nonetheless, all identifying information was removed from the discussion board data and no data was collected until students received their final grades for the class.

Materials and Procedure

Because our discourse analysis was informed by a discursive psychology and conversation analysis, the following three, broad analytic questions sensitized our analytic process (Potter, 2004): 1) What is the discourse functioning to do? 2) How is the discourse structured to do this? and 3) What discursive resources are being used to carry out this social action/activity? Data for this study was collected across two academic terms, in which a total of 93 graduate students were enrolled in four classes – all of which were taught online by the same instructor. The first author was the instructor on record. All classes were taught entirely online. Of the 93 students, 85 were enrolled in a master’s degree program, five in an education specialists program, and three in a doctoral program. The specialist programs in which students were enrolled included: Middle Grades Education, School Psychology, Reading, and Educational Leadership. The doctoral programs in which students were enrolled included: Curriculum Studies and Educational Leadership. Table 1 represents enrollment by master’s degree and program for the remaining 85 students who were seeking master’s degrees. The master’s degree programs listed could be taken full-time or part-time but most students opted for part- time enrollment.

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 57

Table 1. Student Enrollment by Master’s Degree and Program

Degree

Program MAT M.Ed.

Middle Grades Education 1

Secondary Education 5

Math 1

Business 1

Spanish 2

Higher Education Administration 25

Special Education 14

Early Childhood 13

School Counseling 7

Secondary Education 6

Educational Leadership 5

Middle Grades Education 4

Instructional Technology 1

Instruction for the course was provided through required readings, online course activities, and optional live synchronous online class sessions. Each week, discussion board posts were required. Students had to post their initial response to the prompt by Wednesday of each week. There were not a set number of posts or replies that students were required to make, but they were encouraged to participate actively and to dialogue with at least one of their classmates. Once a discussion board was opened, it remained

58 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction open for the duration of the course; though very few students ever returned to a discussion board once a new discussion board topic was posted/opened. The discussion boards were monitored each week by the instructor, and she served as an active facilitator (e.g., posing clarifying questions, asking for additional examples, providing examples, etc.). In all of the course sections, during the first week, the students completed learning activities that provided an overview and familiarized them with the topic of educational research while the second week of the course, which is the focus of this study, centered on students locating themselves as a researchers. This meant exploring and gaining an understanding of research paradigms and corresponding epistemologies, ontologies, and methodologies that fit within each paradigm. As instructors of research methods courses, we believe introducing students to the philosophical underpinnings of research and providing them with the opportunity to explore their own epistemic and ontologic orientations is a central part of becoming a researcher and developing an understanding of the research process. Across our courses, we emphasize to students that their identity as a researcher is not fixed; rather it is fluid and will continue to unfold over time. Instruction regarding research paradigms included assigned readings, a live or recorded lecture (depending on if students attended the synchronous session), a short answer activity, and the discussion board posts used in this study. Whe discussing research paradigms, the students were given two book chapters (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998; Hatch, 2002) and one journal article (Krauss, 2005) to read related to research paradigms and three different models illustrating research paradigms and epistemologies to review before responding to the discussion board. All materials were distributed to students in limited quantity under the guidelines of Fair Use as outline in Section 107 of the US Copyright Act. Students responded to the following discussion board prompt:

The discussion board this week is a place for you to dialogue about research paradigms and the epistemological and ontological frameworks that support each paradigm. With which research paradigm do you most closely align and why? Also, what kinds of things are you most interested in researching? Does the paradigm with which you align allow for the kind of research you hope to

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 59

do? As someone new to educational research, how do you think the paradigm with which you identify will affect the type of study you might conduct? Be sure to comment thoughtfully and reflectively on your classmates’ posts as well.

Each student made an initial post to this prompt and on average three comments in response to their peers. All of the posts and comments were collected, organized, and analyzed. It is not uncommon for researchers working with online discussion data to focus their analysis on the initial posts (see, for example, Lester & Paulus, 2011; Paulus & Lester, 2013; Varga & Paulus, 2014). Because our purpose was to capture how students began to develop their research identities, we wanted to see how they first oriented to this new phenomenon in response to the initial prompt. Therefore, we analyzed the 93 initial posts, which averaged 222 words each, as these posts were where the students talked most about their paradigmatic orientations and commitments. The analysis of the comments is the focus of a future study.

Data Analysis

The discussion posts were downloaded, sanitized, and put into a master Word document. We used Atlas.ti™ 7, a computer-assisted data analysis software package, to organize and systematically analyze the data. Our analysis began with an initial read of the discussion posts to familiarize ourselves with the data set and to note those sections of the data that we found most interesting and analytically relevant. As we engaged in open reading, we used the memoing feature in Atlas.ti™ to individually make both analytical and theoretical memos linked to key segments of the data. Our individual memos were then merged so that we could review one another’s memos in relationship to the data set. We then moved to narrow the focus of our analysis, determining to focus only on the students’ initial posts in response to the first question posed in the discussion board, “With which research paradigm do you most closely align and why?” This allowed us to more explicitly focus on how students went about negotiating their researcher identity. Once we narrowed the focus of our analysis, our analytical process included: (a) repeating readings of the data, alongside ongoing memoing of

60 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction the data, (b) identification of broad discursive patterns and more micro discursive or conversational features (e.g., extreme case formulations, lexical choices, etc.), (c) generation of explanations as to how students used language to construct their research identities, and (d) selection of representative extracts to document our claims (Author, 2011). Throughout this process, we remained transparent and reflexive in our analytic process, and continually returned to our original research questions with each new discovery: How do graduate students enrolled in an introductory research methods course discursively navigate their research identities? and How do students go about constructing a research identity for themselves? For a four month period, we met bi-monthly via Skype™ or Adobe® Connect™ to discuss the analytic process and emergent findings. We also maintained a record of our ‘formal’ meeting notes and shared our thoughts and ideas weekly via email. Throughout, we reflected together on our how assumptions shaped the analysis process.

Results

Through our analysis, we identified two discursive patterns or social actions: 1) minimizing knowledge and 2) justifying paradigmatic orientations. We present each of these patterns in detail and include representative extracts from the data set. Aligning with a discourse approach to research (Potter & Wetherell, 1987), we discuss each extract by including a line-by-line analysis, thereby making our interpretation visible and open to reader evaluation (Antaki et al., 2003).

Minimizing Knowledge

Many DP studies of education discourse, have highlighted the ways in which students’ talk functions to minimize their status as knowledgeable (Benwell & Stokoe, 2002, 2005; Paulus & Lester, 2013). Benwell and Stokoe (2010), for instance, noted that students often “...work to produce a particular culture … in which ‘being a student’ involves appearing detached from the academic endeavour,” wherein “students co-construct the discursive limits in which being ‘too clever’ is problematic” (p. 93–94). Similarly, within our dataset, we noted that the participants went about ‘being a student’ by beginning posts with hedges and/or distancing

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 61 themselves from knowing ‘too much’ or anything at all. Extract 1 illustrates this well.

Extract 1 (Student 6B) After reading the 3 articles and looking at the charts, I still have no better grasp on the paradigms than I did when I started reading. Paradigm has not been part of my vernacular, with the exception of sitting through team building and psycho-self assessment workshops; the facilitator would frequently throw out “paradigm shift”.

As with other initial posts, Student 6B began by making visible the activities that marked her identity as a student (‘reading the 3 articles and looking at the charts’). This discursive move illustrates how the participants oriented to the prompt as fundamentally institutional in scope – one in which they were asked to display their identity as a student. Further, Student 6B makes explicit that she “still” has “no better grasp on the paradigms”, minimizing her knowledge. She moved then to justify ‘not knowing’, stating that she was not familiar with such language (“not been part of my vernacular”). Typically, when people make claims of ‘not knowing’, they move to justify their lack of knowledge, avoiding the possibility of losing face or being positioned as incompetent (Goffman, 1967). While some students explicitly made claims of having “no...grasp”, others made softer claims of ‘not knowing’, such as Student 20B.

Extract 2 (Student 20B, part I) Upon first reading these various articles and learning about the different types of paradigms, I will admit, I felt a bit overwhelmed. I had no idea that there were so many ways in which to conduct research and for that matter, that they were classified.

Similar to Extract 1, Student 20B began by listing out what he had done, as a student (“reading these various articles and learning”). Then, the student moved to express feeling “overwhelmed”, perhaps functioning to minimize his claim to knowing much about paradigms. We were struck by how students began their posts by claiming not to “grasp” or feeling “overwhelmed” by the very idea of research paradigms and/or the “different

62 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction types of paradigms”. We interpreted this discursive move to act to minimize the students’ claims to knowing and distance them from having to account for the research paradigm(s) that they claimed to align with. Being a student is a fragile social act (Paulus & Lester, 2013), as you are typically being asked to show whether you ‘know’ something or not, a potentially face-threatening act. Thus, perhaps it is unsurprisingly that many of the participating students structured their posts to minimize the risk of being questioned or positioned as "wrong". Interestingly, immediately following a claim of ‘not knowing’, students often moved to align themselves with a particular paradigm(s). Extract 3, continues with Student 20B’s initial post.

Extract 3 (Student 20B, part II) I, like most people, probably had their first experience with research as a positivist, when they learned about the scientific method and had to conduct a research project for their school science fair. For a while, I thought that this was the only kind of research that existed!

Here, Student 20B, claimed to have had experiences with positivist forms of research, positioning this as the norm (“like most people”). In many ways, this is structured like a script formulation – a statement presenting general knowledge that ‘everyone agrees with’ (Edwards, 1997). Across our data, we noted that the majority of the students presented research as something that ‘believably’ and ‘presumably’ was tightly connected to positivism. Thus, we were intrigued by the tight coupling that students made between their claims of the meaning of research in relation to positivism, and, as in the case of Extract 3, the “scientific method”. Nonetheless, few students stopped here. For instance, in Extract 3, Student 20B moved to clarify that he believed research was positivist “for a while”, implying that he now had a broader perspective. For many students, though, a broader perspective and understanding of research paradigms was aligned with the course readings and activities. Many students referred to “reflecting,” “pondering” or “re-reading”, as illustrated in Extract 4.

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Extract 4 (Student 11B) After much pondering, I would venture to classify myself as a Postpositivist / Constructivist. I believe that my life experience has taught me that the nature of reality is that “Reality exists but is never fully apprehended, only approximated” (Hatch, 2002). Which I interpret to mean; we never really get a full grasp of what life is all about, we just try to keep our heads above the water and enjoy the rainbow as we dog paddle.” I also agree with many of my fellow classmates in regards to the Constructivist view of the nature of reality, which implies that “multiple realities are constructed” (Hatch, 2002).

Student 11B began by indicating that her paradigm claim was preceded by “much pondering.” Knowledge around paradigms, then, was situated within an act that is often expected of graduate students – reflection. Further, while Student 11B did not claim ‘not to know’, she did ground her claim of “Postpositivist/Constructivist” in relation to “life experience”, as well as a verbatim quote drawn from the readings. Direct quotations often act to bolster one’s claim and minimize the risk of being questions as ‘not knowing’ or being uninformed. Positioning one’s knowledge in relation to a text is perhaps a ‘safe’ position, as the student is less likely to be critiqued and/or questioned as not knowing.

Justifying Paradigmatic Orientations

In addition to minimizing knowledge, there were two primary ways that students went about justifying the paradigms with which they claimed to align: (a) evoking membership categories, and (b) grounding claims in personal experiences.

Evoking membership categories

Sacks (1992) noted that certain categories are associated with particular knowledge, with one’s membership with a particular category being associated with the ‘right’ to speak about a topic and/or hold some type of privileged knowledge. For instance, as a category ‘medicine’ holds the knowledge to ‘cure.’ Informed by Sacks’ (1992) and Stokoe’s (2012) work on membership categories, we took note of how the participants evoked

64 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction particular categories when building up and justifying their research identities. This was particularly true when the participants went about describing their paradigm, with this choice often bound to a particular category (e.g., classroom teacher, scientist, etc.). The categories students primarily evoked included two particular concepts of membership categorization set forth by Stokoe (2012). First, category-bound activities which are described as specific activities or actions linked to a particular category, and second, standardized relational pairs which include pairs of categories that carry obligations in relation to one another. Extract 5 illustrates the use of both category-bound activities and standardized relational pairs.

Extract 5 (Student 18A) As a classroom teacher, I identified with the critical paradigm because I am a STRONG advocate for my students and want them to be this for themselves as well. As this is my main battle in the classroom, I did have a pull towards this paradigm.

In this example, Student 18A categorized his position as a critical researcher by connecting the category of “critical” with the action of “advocating” for students, indicating that what he knows about the critical paradigm can be explained through the action of advocacy. This is also tightly coupled with the standardized relational pair of teacher and student. Categorizing himself as a teacher carries with it the duty of advocating for students. This categorization illuminated for us how the Student 18A orients to research (through his professional identity) and how that orientation was categorized (made familiar) to the student. Similar to Extract 5, Student 9B uses category-bound activities and relational pairs to justify her position as a researcher.

Extract 6 (Student 9B) I have finally decided that I believe I “fit” into the postpositivist mindset. I believe this because as a scientist (Biology major), I value very strict data collection and analysis. I understand that when I am observing someone's perspectives, that it must be done in a very disciplined way.

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Unlike Student 18A, who readily identified as a teacher and then connected that to his researcher identify, Student 9B began by stating her position as a researcher and subsequently connected that to her position as a scientist and the action of “strict data collection and analysis.” Further, she began this extract by indicating that her positioning was something that she “finally decided” upon, suggesting that she had taken much time to come to this decision. Like the majority of the participating students, Student 9B made evident the time and even challenge of determining where you “fit” in relation to research paradigms. Much like Student 9B, in Extract 7, Student 2C justified his position in a similar familiar fashion, stating his position as a researcher by connecting that paradigm to his background knowledge in math and science.

Extract 7 (Student 2C) After reading the article, I have come to the assumption that I am most closely aligned with the postpositivist paradigm. I have a mathematical/scientific background and approach at looking at things, so I felt like this approach was most like me. I feel like although there is reality, that there are still things out there that you will never know until they happen. When I research something, I feel like I am objective about what I am being presented with.

In both Extract 6 and 7, “science” is used by both students to categorize themselves within a particular research paradigm, justifying their positions as post-positivists. It is also important to note how Student 9B used language such as “finally decided” and “…fit into the post-positivist mindset” to justify her position, which is similar to how Student 2C used the phrase “come to the assumption that I am…” Such discursive choices were used across the data set, perhaps highlighting the way in which the students oriented to this institutional task – one that they were required to respond to. For some of the students, they explicitly mentioned how difficult it was to navigate the feeling of being pressured or even forced to “fit” themselves within one particular paradigm. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, 18 of the students identified with multiple paradigms. As represented in Extracts 5, 6 and 7, we were struck by the manner in which the participating students made tight connections between particular research paradigms and identity categories such as “critical and advocate”

66 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction and “post-positivist and scientist.” Eight students identified with the critical/feminist paradigm and eleven with the post-positivist paradigm. We interpreted these students’ use of membership categorization as being one way by which they came to make sense of a fairly unfamiliar topic (research paradigms) in relation to something more familiar (specific membership categories). In other words, if they could categorize it, they could claim to ‘hold understanding’ and justify their claims.

Grounding claims in personal experience

While using membership categories as a means to justify the paradigms with which they aligned was common, students also justified their positions in relation to personal and professional experiences. The majority of the students used personal and professional experiences to justify their positions, yet their justifying claims often made evident misconceptions and misunderstandings, particularly as it related to the constructivist paradigm. Student 1D steeped his research identity in his personal and professional experience as shown in Extract 8.

Extract 8 (Student 1D) I believe I am part of a product of my environment. Quantitative data is the most highly regarded data in my workplace. Whether it's improving program offerings or support services to students or increasing efficiencies within the division, quantitative data is respected as the end all be all… I am the Assessment Coordinator for our Division (in Student Affairs), and after reviewing my work for the past year, I realized that all instruments I created for units were quantitative so I am naturally accustomed to the Positivist/Postpositivist paradigm.

Here, Student 1D began by indicating that he was a product of his environment. This claim was followed by his indication that “quantitative data is most highly regarded in [his] workplace.” Thus, he situated his knowledge of research paradigms not necessarily in what he may have found important in the course readings, but in relation to what was presumably commonplace within his professional community. Such a claim is one that no one can challenge, as Student 1D was the only one who had

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 67 access to this information. In talk and text, personal experiences often function to ground a speaker’s claims as being valid, as the speaker/writer is positioned as reporting ‘facts’ that only he observed (Barnes et al., 2001; Carranzza Marquez, 2010). Further, as noted previously in relation to membership categories, this particular instance of personal experience also incorporated relational pairs, drawing connections between the research paradigm and experience, for example, “quantitative and positivist/post- positivist”. Each justification of a research paradigm brought with it a list of terms, definitions and associations that in many ways proffered a particular perspective. This was of interest as it most often related to the students’ description of constructivism. The largest number of students, approximately 39, claimed to identify with the constructivist paradigm. Based on our analysis of the students justifying claims, we noted that there were two rationales offered in relation to this focus on constructivism: (a) many students enrolled in these courses were educators where constructivist teaching practices were taught and often presumed to be synonymous with a constructivist research paradigm, and (b) using the linear models the students were given to visually orient to research paradigms (Appendix A), constructivism fell in the middle and may have been viewed as the “safe choice” for some students. In other words, students most often linked their experience as educators to the idea of constructivism, as illustrated in Extracts 9 and 10.

Extract 9 (Student 21A, part I) Perusing and reading the various paradigms there is a minimal part of each integrated into my teaching, but the main focus tends to be a emphasis on the workshop model that must be implemented into the classroom structure for all academic subjects-Constructivist tends fit the best. In many ways I see each of these paradigms in my inclusion classroom, because of the innumerable components of how each can benefit the different personalities of the thirty students sitting in the class. It is my main goal to discover how each student learns, and scaffold to meet the needs to establish academic success. Understanding and acknowledging experiences, and how those experiences affect the learning is the main emphasis.

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In Extract 9, Student 21A’s followed the common pattern of justifying his position by evoking the membership category (“each integrated into my teaching”) of a teacher, while also drawing on personal experience (“in my inclusion classroom”). Here, though, we also see the move to connect the membership category of “constructivist” to “teaching” and the “classroom.” The notion of constructivism, then, is located within the framework of classroom teaching. Constructivism as a cognitive theory comes from the work of Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and John Dewey. The basic premise is that constructing meaning is learning. The idea is that knowledge is constructed by the learner and that learning is made up of complex knowledge structures of which the learner takes in and constructs individual meaning from. Educators are expected to focus on the learner in thinking about learning rather than on the subject to be taught and to acknowledge that there is no knowledge independent of the meaning attributed to experience and constructed by the learner. As an educational theory, constructivism is focused on the growth of active learners through the construction and reorganization of cognitive structures. Students are not passive recipients of information but actively connect information with previously assimilated knowledge and make it their own. As a research paradigm that includes epistemic and ontologic orientations, constructivism disconnects from objectivity, assumes there is no universal reality and assumes there are multiple realities able to be constructed by human beings who experience a phenomenon of interest. In addition, constructivist philosophy recognizes interpretation as a crucial element in the meaning making process (Savin- Baden & Howell, 2013). In part II of Student 21A’s response (Extract 10), the student’s orientation to constructivism became evident. In an attempt to relate the research paradigm to personal experience, Student 21A drew on constructivism as a theoretical construct rather than as a philosophical construct.

Extract 10 (Student 21A, part II) In the classroom I am asking the students to continuously reflect based on the previous (background knowledge), the new (core curriculum), and how each is changing the belief on the concrete skill. It is my goal as the teacher to assist each student in the

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thought process of discarding unnecessary information/data to figure the relevant skill to build the basic skill base. A Constructivist view within a classroom is controlling the teaching through a number of diverse methods and practices.

Here, Student 21A positions his alignment with constructivism in relationship to their everyday classroom experiences. Similar to other participants, Student 21A lists an activity (“continuously reflect”) that he asks his students to complete, which presumably makes evident a commitment to “constructivism.” The student concludes with a script formulation regarding “a constructivist view”, stating that this view if “controlling the teaching”. Script formulations are generic claims that are presented much like common knowledge or something that ‘everyone’ presumably knows or agrees upon (Edwards, 1997). Such formulations are often used to build a case for a particular claim. In this case, Student 21A is perhaps making evident that he ‘knows’ through experience what “constructivism” is, while simultaneously justifying his alignment with this paradigm. Despite this discursive work, here, like many of other participants, Student 21A positions himself with a version of “constructivism” that is located within his everyday practice. Perhaps, then, it is not surprising that many of the participants, the majority of whom were trained educators, chose constructivism as a research paradigm, but from the perspective of educational theory. Many educators have studied educational foundations, which include philosophies of education, and many have been exposed to educational theory. That exposure might draw an educator towards the constructivist paradigm because it is a word that is familiar, bringing with it terms and associations that the students felt they could easily justify. However, this justification was made explicit through the display of confusion between the theoretical and philosophical orientations to constructivism.

Discussion

Overall, our findings highlight how being asked to talk about one’s research identity is a potentially fragile task, as evidenced by disclaimers of ‘knowing’, and one that evokes justifications and connections to students’ everyday lives. Similar to other discourse studies, (e.g., Attenborough,

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2011; Benwell & Stokoe, 2010), our findings point to the tension between taking up an academic identity, in this case a researcher identity, and being just an average graduate student ‘who doesn’t know much.’ Overall, the inherent complexities of constructing and navigating a researcher identity were noted. Similar to our findings, previous research has pointed to the delicate task of navigating a student identity, which most research methods courses implicitly or explicitly position as a core outcome. Thus, the findings from our study are particularly useful for instructors who teach introductory research courses, as these findings provide instructors with considerations for course design particularly as students go about the task of constructing their researcher identities. As we consider the potential implications of our findings, particularly as faculty members who teach both introductory research methods courses and qualitative research courses, we acknowledge the need to examine how we introduce students to research paradigms in the classroom. In our experience, many students who enter graduate school do so with prior knowledge, professional experience, and different personal goals. This can make developing a research identity a difficult challenge, particularly for students who enter with extensive professional experience, as they may begin to find themselves in a place where they are oriented to as novices in the research world but experts in their profession, leading them to a new and challenging territory (Murakami-Ramalho, Militello, & Piert, 2013). As Attenborough (2011) pointed out, there is a delicate balance of navigating a newfound identity and guiding students through this process. Identity work, particularly when linked to displaying what you know, can be inherently risky for some students, and brings with it the potential for losing face in front of peers (Paulus & Lester, 2013). An example of this is the way students in this study worked to minimize their knowledge prior to making any claims to a particular paradigmatic orientation or research identity. It is important, then, that instructors who teach research courses reconsider how students are asked to negotiate and label their research identities, recognizing that the very task itself may be fragile and potentially face threatening. Instructors may need to participate in facilitating interactions with students that allows them to feel safe in exploring unfamiliar ideas and identities. How students are introduced to research paradigms will likely shape how they orient to the topic and begin to make meaning of it. Historically,

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 71 paradigm charts in linear formats, much like the ones presented as part of the task presented to the students in this study, have been used in research classes to help students map the field and begin to consider where their epistemic and ontologic orientations may lay. Yet, we wonder whether the trouble with these types of models is that they give the impression that (as most linear models do) categories move in a particular direction from best to worst, most popular to least popular, oldest to newest, and so on, with the middle being somewhat of a neutral ground or safe spot. As our findings highlights, many students often drew upon concepts linked to the most familiar aspects of their work-lives. With this knowledge, instructors of research methods courses may find it fruitful to present research paradigms in relationship to connections with students’ everyday lives and position them as being far more fluid and dynamic (in contrast to linear models). For example, instructors may incorporate examples from students’ daily lives directly into their discussions of various research paradigms. Further, there are certainly no tidy researcher categories; so reconsidering how we choose to present research paradigms to students is something that has the potential to change the way students take up the task of talking about their researcher identities. We agree with Lather (2006) that there is a need to restructure educational research classes as a space that first “requires work at the level of basic assumptions about the world and the knowledge we might have of it” building toward a space that advocates for teaching in such a way that helps students understand aporias and the complexities of researcher identities (p. 48). Perhaps then students can begin to understand their identities as less fixed, less technical, and more fluid and dialogical.

Acknowledgment

Dr. Antonio P. Gutierrez, Department of Curriculum, Foundations & Reading, Georgia Southern University (translation)

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76 Davis & Lester – Graduate Students’ Construction

C. Amelia Davis is an Assistant Professor of Educational Research in the Departament of Curriculum, Foundations & Reading at Georgia Southern University, United States. ORCID id: 0000-0003-2383-8183

Jessica N. Lester is an Assistant Professor of Inquiry Methodology in the Departament of Counseling & Educational Psychology at Indiana University, United States. ORCID id: 0000-0001-6107-3033

Contact Address: C. Amelia Davis, Georgia Southern University, College of Education, Departament of Curriculum, Foundations and Reading, P.O. Box 8144, Statesboro, GA 30460, United States. Email: [email protected]

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Across gender. Work situations of rural women in the South of Spain

Magdalena Suárez-Ortega1

1) Department of Methods of Research and Diagnosis in Education, University of Seville, Spain.

Date of publication: February 28th, 2016 Edition period: October 2015 - February 2016

To cite this article: Suárez-Ortega, M. (2016). Across gender. Work situations of rural women in the South of Spain. Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1), 77-104. doi:10.17583/qre.2016.1814

To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/qre.2016.1814

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 77-104

Across Gender. Work Situations of Rural Women in the South of Spain

Magdalena Suárez-Ortega Universidad de Sevilla

(Received: 15 November 2015; Accepted: 27 December 2015; Published: 28 February 2016)

Abstract Even though undeniable social changes such as gender discrimination have occurred, the forms of access to public education and employment, as well as the conditions under which these jobs are carried out, are often loaded with sexist biases. Using the biographical-narrative method and a combination of techniques and strategies for gathering and analysing information, the current paper presents an empirical longitudinal study examining the labour situation of rural women who participate in different employment -professional and guidance- training activities. The women´s perceptions and interpretations of their training and professional situations wereanalysed, as well as their opportunities related to finding a job when they completed their education. Additionally, this study examined the extent to which the public services for employment training were adequate and functional for women regarding whether these services achieved their anticipated aims. We concluded gender inequalities on the employment situation of women, and the importance of implementing urgent measures to fight against the employment crisis from an equality way.

Keywords: gender equality, rural women, professional development, labour identity, employment training, professional guidance services

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1814 Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 77-104

Al Otro Lado del Género. Situaciones Laborales de las Mujeres Rurales del Sur de España

Magdalena Suárez-Ortega Universidad de Sevilla

(Recibido: 15 de noviembre de 2015; Aceptado: 27 de diciembre de 2015; Publicado: 28 de febrero de 2016)

Resumen A pesar de que se han producido cambios sociales innegables en cuanto a la discriminación de género, las formas de acceso a la educación pública y el empleo, así como las condiciones en que se llevan a cabo estos trabajos, a menudo están cargados de prejuicios sexistas. Utilizando el método biográfico-narrativo y una combinación de técnicas y estrategias para la recopilación y análisis de información, el presente trabajo presenta un estudio longitudinal empírico en el que se examina la situación laboral de las mujeres rurales que participan en diferentes actividades de formación-profesional y orientación-empleo. Se analizaron las percepciones de mujeres, la interpretación que tienen acerca de su formación y situaciones profesionales, así como sus oportunidades relacionadas con la búsqueda de un puesto de trabajo cuando ellas completaron su educación. Además, este estudio examinó el grado en que los servicios públicos de formación para el empleo eran adecuados y funcionales para las mujeres con respecto a si estos servicios alcanzaron sus objetivos previstos. Concluimos con las desigualdades de género en la situación laboral de las mujeres, y la importancia de la aplicación de medidas urgentes para luchar contra la crisis del empleo de una manera igualitaria.

Palabras clave: igualdad de género, mujeres rurales, desarrollo profesional, identidad laboral, capacitación laboral, servicios de orientación profesional

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1814 Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 79

capitalist industrial society generates economic, political, social and cultural systems in which work and labour relationships are A characterized by features including unemployment, division of work spaces into formal and informal, labour regulations through contracts, social class differences (e.g., owners of means of production and proletariat) and a prevailing mentality characterized by individualism and production. This situation has been exacerbated since the years from 2007- 2008 when Spain began an intense period of crisis that destroyed the labour rights of citizens, which particularly affected women (Le Feuvre & Roseneil, 2014). The VII Report on exclusion and social development in Spain (Lorenzo Gilzanz, 2014) by the European Commission (2015) revealed that the highest percentage of poverty was evident for women and that this trend showed greater increases for this group. Gender differences between the sexes, particularly regarding employment, affect all aspects of women’s lives. This Report also highlighted that these poverty trends were evident at the young and old age periods, where care is most needed (Duncan & Loretto, 2004). Thus, gender factors affect socioeconomic relationships, and the concentration of poverty in women indicates that discrimination among the principal groups of power promotes women´s social exclusion. Another effect of a globalized society is an increase in unemployment, primarily in underemployment. Unemployment is a social phenomenon that affects the general population, particularly during times of crisis such as the present. It is the most notable characteristic of the current labour market and it affects specific categories or social groups to a greater extent. Women have been identified as one group that is seriously affected by this situation, particularly when the interrelationships of gender, age and qualifications are considered (Susinos, Calvo & García, 2014). At the social level, these assertions are supported by Law 6/2014 from December 30th in which the Budget of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia 2015 clearly identified an inequality gap with a focus on gender with regard topeople who maintainedemployment. Women´s employmentis associated with specific factors, such as unemployment, job inactivity, job type, temporariness and instability, the underground economy and precariousness. Suárez-Ortega (2013), Torns, Carrasquer, Moreno, & Borras (2013) and Le Feuvre & Roseneil (2014) posited that these characteristics generate a typical female job profile. All of

80 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women these characteristics of the labour market are present in a Welfare State. The concept of a Welfare Stateis a proposal or political model through which the State provides its citizens with certain resources or social guarantees. According to Clayton & Pontusson (1998), public services constitute one main factor within a Welfare State as they are created in response to social demands. For example, public services related to occupational training were created to achieve the objectives proposed at the Lisboa Summit 2000, which were conducted during the period from 2008- 2011. Currently, the Cohesion Policy of the European Union is being conducted from 2014-2020, European Union, 2011-2012. To examine social indicators, it is important to focus on the historical and contextual referents of the Spanish society. Spain is a country that has been whipped by a dictatorship (Torns et al., 2013), with consequences evident regarding the development of public services related toeducation, health, social services and professional training. During this dictatorship, a strong division of sexual roles that resulted in important gender inequalities dominated the Spanish society. Women werecast aside, and an emphasis was placed on their dependence on men, either their fathers or husbands. This lack of individual freedom was reflected in society, as women were deprived of any privilege. A married woman could not work, she was not allowed to manage goods, her partner could give her children through adoption without her consent and neither divorce nor abortion were allowed (Gijon Town Hall, Women’s Foundation, 2009; Susinos, Calvo & García, 2014). Women were only intended for family care; therefore,educating them was useless, which increased the legal disparities between women and men. By the mid-1970s, equality between men and women started to become evident when the discrimination thatprimarily affected women became visible. 1975 marked the end of the dictatorship and the beginning of a social democratic course, which included writing of the Spanish Constitution and the development of an equal opportunities policy. According to Salas & Comabella (1999), one remarkable aspect of this time period was the prioritizing of equal opportunities for women at the educational and work levels, which were emphasized as a prerequisite for women’s autonomy to develop their economic independence from men. Yet, it was not until 1978 when a democratic regime was established in Spain that people´s life conditions became of social relevance as a matter of

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 81 political importance. Institutions, public services, social measures and actions related to the quality of people´s personal and labour lives began to be created, with a focus on those related to social equity and genre relationships. The new constitutional framework and the subsequent creation of the Woman´s Institute (1983) initiated the Equal Opportunities Plans within the Spanish context, as they developed the objectives and the axis of important actions regarding employment and economic development. These improvements were associated with the development of equality policies in the European framework, in which Mainstreaming was a work strategy that included genre in a transverse way in all transnational policies to stress the necessity of coordination from the European sphere to the local one. These measures supported the development of public resources, for example, professional training and guidance service to aid in obtaining a job. Thus, Spanish women had greater access to resources to aid in their qualification and labour insertion than ever before. Employment training activities were promoted by the Andalusian Autonomous Government, the Andalusian Service for Employment, the Andalusian Woman´s Institute, county councils and local governments. These activities provided women with training for the performance of an occupation and access to the labour market. However, recently, these policiesand resourceshave suffered a number of general setbacks some that have specifically affected gender.

Spanish and Andalusian Women’s Employment Conditions: Inequalities in Numbers

Unemployment, Activity and Inactivity

Althoughnumerous equal opportunity policies, measures and resources currently exist, women´s employment and living conditions are still discriminatory when compared to those of men. According to the National Institute of Statistics (2005, 2015), the percentage of unemployment in Spanish 24.4% (National Statistics, 2015), with the rates of 23.6% for men and 25.4% for women. The National Institute of Statistics and the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and Equality (2015) state that the gender gap is at 10.6 points (population 16 years and older), and it becomes more evident

82 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women for the age group from 55-64 years (16.5 points) and 25-54 years (9.9 points). Data from 2012 reveal that the gender-gapin Spanish are 2 points higher than that of Europe. Spain has a female unemployment rate of 18.31% and 25.4%, respectively, and a male unemployment of 17.62% and 23.6%, respectively. These two percentages refer to as only one factor (female vs. male unemployment rates) is discussed. Moreover, the rate of female activity is 51.55%, where as the rate of male activity is 68.89%. Currently, the activity rate is approximately 50% across both cases, with greater employment losses due to the masculine labour crisis. Data from the Autonomous Regions (2015) reveal that Andalusia has an unemployment rate of 34.8%, and, specifically, the province of Seville has an unemployment rate of 32.8%. According to the Andalusian Statistics Institute (2005, 2013-2014), the number of Andalusian women who participated in training activities for employment increased from 9,440 to 33,069 (miles). Although these figures haveremained consistent in recent years, the gender gap with regard to the percentage of employed persons persists (43.9% of Andalusian women and 45.4% of Spanish women; data from 2014). This situation is exacerbated for certain professional sectors, such as construction, industry and agriculture, with respective data of 9.5%, 20.2% and 26.6% in Andalusia and 8.4%, 25.1% and 26.1% in Spain. Moreover, the rates for the formative or superior level begin to equalize or are equitable (54% female; 51% Spanish and Andalusian), whereas the gender gap is most pronounced among women without qualifications and those with only primary or high school level educations (keeping occupancy data between 35.5 to 45.9%). Currently, self-employment is an option for many people, yet this has a pronounced gender gap in the business world with only 30.8% of Andalusian women listed as entrepreneurs and 32.6% of Spanish women compared to their male peers1.

Labour Precariousness, Low Remuneration and the Underground Economy

Many women are employed within the underground economy or in other conditions of precariousness. In our field, there are only a few studies centred on such processes, whereas research from the economy perspective reveals the importance the submerged work, unregulated, have especially in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. Schneider (1997) and Torns et

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 83 al. (2013) showed how the underground economy is a characteristic of the labour market that has expanded in recent years; therefore, it is evident in our study context. Research has examined the underground economy within the shoe sector, revealing that the effects of labour instability are clear. The general characteristics of the underground employment among women are as follows: a lack of stability, a lack of qualifications and professional promotion, a lack of legal regulations, discriminatory contracting, few possibilities for promotion and a lack of capacity for associations and claims. Job insecurity increased in the past decade (2005-2015), which destroyed fixed and permanent contracts and labour rights. This situation strongly affected women (e.g., data published in 2012 show that in 2008 Andalusia ended contracts 110,214 men and 94,796 women were registered, which were drastically eliminated; data from 2012 recorded 62,922 permanent contracts for Andalusian men and 54,132 for women). These data reveal that flexibility, instability and temporariness are increasingly evident characteristics of the labour market in Andalusia (four of ten workers are temporarily employed, which is higher than national and international rates). It is important to note that these figures are official, yet Spanish, and specifically in Andalusia, there is evidence of undocumented work (Torns et al, 2013), which increases in periods of crisis such as the present. There are only a few studies examining this type of submerged work, but studies focusing on the rural context indicate that working conditions worsen in these areas. Duran & Paniagua (2000) stated that women in these rural contexts perform more jobs than in other contexts, yet it is difficult to measure their employment rates here. The employment conditions are also associated with the opportunities that are present in different contexts. For example, the rural labour market offers fewer possibilities for employment than the urban one, given that, as Langreo (2000) highlighted, rural women face certain conditions. Although the social situation and women´s lives in Spain have improved with the social democratic process, there are still numerous instances of social and gender discrimination to overcome. As, at an economic level, despite increases in female occupation levels, Spain has a low female participation rate in the labour market (i.e., “formal”). This low rate is associated with Spain having few members of the labour force working in the public sector. Spain also needs to generate an enterprise network to

84 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women create quality employment options (Law 11/2013 from July 26th, which included measures to support entrepreneurship and stimulate grow than job creation; Decree 219/2011 from June 28th, which approved the Planfor the Promotion of Entrepreneurial Culture in the Public Education System of Andalusia; and Law 14/2013 from September 27th, which supported entrepreneurs and internationalization2). In total, 65.5% of self-employed individuals are male, where as only 34.4% are female. Finally, according to the National Statistics Institute (2015), the wage gap is76.1%, with a significant difference in the waged a in for women (total reported 19,537.3euros) compared to the wage gain for men (25,682.1 euros).

The Research Process

Purpose of the Current Study

This study analysed the labour processes and life changes experienced by adult women from the province of Seville. We focused on women who did not have many academic or professional opportunities during earlier stages of their lives and who currently wanted to attain employment in public services through occupational training activities. The women who participated in this study were from rural contexts in the province. They were wives, housewives and mothers who did not have access to formal education or to formal jobs with professional transcendence. At the time of this study, they were between 35- to 45-years- old and were reflecting on the decisions that they made in the past, including the opportunities that they had or did not have. Many of the women had paid jobs but had difficulty establishing specific professional itineraries due to the conditions of their jobs and their own life courses. The women in our study had employment profiles with characteristics such as long-term unemployment, extended lapses in and/or estrangement from training and experience in the so-called “formal” labour market. These women were registered as unemployed at the National Employment Institute; therefore, they were eligible to receive information, guidance and professional training. They intended to enter the labour market with the aid of different professional training activities. One objective of the current study was to examine these women´s professional careers, including their work conditions. This was an initial

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 85 step in order to analyse the women’s perceptions of the present labour market and the real opportunities with regard to finding a job given their occupational training. This study also examined the efficacy of this training in collaboration with the equal opportunity policies and measures.

Method

This study utilized a qualitative methodology to approach the subject from an internal perspective following a biographical narrative method (Stroobants, 2005; Suárez-Ortega, 2008, 2013). Our exploration was conducted from the perspective of the women and the way that they perceived and experienced our research process (Collins 1992; Cochran, 1997; Crossley, 2000; Bullough, 2008). Through this method, the word (voice(s)) and the experience (meaningfulness of the subjectivity) are given importance, including how the women shared with the research through a succession of reflective interviews, their own personal, academic and professional narratives, and their own meanings that emerged from their cultural and historical references (Denzin, 2003, 2014; Ellis, 2009). This study was longitudinal3 and was conducted from 2002 until the end of 2006 and then conducted again from 2012 to the present (Suárez-Ortega, 2008, 2013). The general phases adopted in the current research are preparation, fieldwork, analysis and information. Although certain tasks excel in each one of these stages, the developed process is cyclical and progressive, and all of its elements are interrelated from the beginning to the end (Brinkman, 2011; Davies & Gannon, 2006; Ellis, 2007; Flick, 2011; Lieblich & Josselson, 1994; Ginette & Blanche, 2000).

The Informants and their Life Contexts

The sample selected for this study responded to structural criteria, such that participants were intentionally chosen to examine the specific social type. These women belonged to four different rural contexts in Seville, as follows: the Sierra Norte, the Campiña, the Aljarafe and the Metropolitan Area. In general, these contexts experience high employment demands among the young and adult populations with inemployment age ranges, which increase for women and in unqualified sectors. These increases are

86 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women directly related to the regulated educational levels of the context populations, which exceed the primary levels. These contexts were selected because they correspond to changes in the training and employment of adult women. Women between the ages of 30 to 35years with low qualifications who devoted most of their lives to childcare and their homes have started demanding information and professional orientations to enrol in different training activities that are offered for job insertion. This is the situation satisfies the contexts needed to examine our previously stated objective. Given the study design, the number of women interviewed (i.e., groups and individuals) was not delimited priory, as it is changed with the research progression. The final number considered the criterion for saturation of information. Forty women participated in the current study. A series of general criteria shaped the women’s profiles and managed their selection. Participants were adult women (older than 25-years-old) who participated in occupational training activities while living in any rural context in the province of Seville. In general, women participate in these activities to qualify themselves for labour insertion through public services provided by the local authorities, the County Council of Seville, the National Employment Institute, the Local Centres for Information for Women and Women’s Associations.

Techniques and Strategies for Data Collection

Data were collected through focus groups, exploratory interviews, life stories and field notes (Ellis, 2007, 2009). Specifically, four focus group sessions (Suárez-Ortega, 2005) (i.e., one for each rural context) forty exploratory interviews (i.e., one for each woman) and eight life stories (i.e., two cases chosen from each context) were conducted. We used triangulation as a strategy for methodological integration (Flick, 2011; Moran-Ellis et al., 2006) given the diversity of the techniques applied.

Techniques for Data Analysis

Data were analysed according to the common procedure of qualitative analysis (Charmaz, 2005; Denzin, 2003, 2009; Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Pierre, 2007). We used the N Vivo Program for methodological support.

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The following tasks were conducted in accordance with Miles & Huberman (1994, p.12): data collection, transcription and reduction of data, disposition, organization and interpretation of the information, prior codification (“indexation system”) and elaboration of a hierarchical system of categories and conclusions. Through a mixed procedure (i.e., deductive and inductive), a system of categories was generated in which a series of previous categories were taken as a first step, which was guided by the objectives of the current research, and another series became evident through analysis. In addition to this system of categories, other analysis techniques, including the registration of critical incidents, frequency tables and category counts, were utilized. Results

Conditions of Women’s Employment

The information that women provided during their interviews revealed that they typically had paid jobs during previous stages of their lives. Similarly, data (frequency) were obtained regarding the diversity of professional spheres that these women worked in, including the activities they engaged in, the types of contracts that they has and the job durations.

Professional sector, duration and type of contracts, and tasks related to work experiences

 Domestic service (15) Three years, one year, four years, thirteen months, four and a half hours a week… Contrats: Six sometimes had contracts, nine had no contract. Tasks: Housework, childcare, elder care.  Cleaning (7) (Town Halls). Between two weeks and six months. The contract: All had contracts. The experience: Monitors in libraries, on school buses, on fieldtrips, for activities at recess.  Rural Employment Plan (6). Two weeks every three years. All had contracts. Tasks: General cleaning, maintenance, street sweeping, hotel maid.  Temporary workers (4). Approximately one and a half month. Three women had contracts. One had no contract. Tasks:

88 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women

Agricultural work (olive, strawberry harvest, canning, temporary work).  Hairdresser (1). Duration of contracts: Seventeen years. No contract. Tasks: Related to the job (cutting, washing styling hair…).  Masseuse (1). Four months. Apprentice contract. Tasks: Course (contents). Basic, specific programs.  Food services (bakery, supermarkets) (7). From four to six years. Three had contracts, two sometimes had no contracts, and two had no contract. Tasks: Kitchen assistant, baking, packaging, taking phone orders, cashier, stocker.  Health (11). Eleven years. Three years. Five had contracts. Six did not have contracts. Tasks: Laboratory for analysis in private clinics, nursing assistant, patient care, medicine control, patient records.  Administration (4). Duration of contracts: From four and a half years to seventeen years. All with contracts. Tasks related to accounting, planning economic management.  Textiles (industrial sewing cooperative) (3). Three years each. All without contract. Using industrial machinery, dressmaking and tailoring.  Employment measures (job workshops) (4). From four months to two and a half years. All had apprentice contracts. Related to theoretical and practical contents of workshops.  Self-employed (sales, shop assistants) (2). From two to fifteen years. No contract. Sales delegate, shop assistant in family business.  Cooperatives (olive) (4). For six seasons. No contract. Basic knowledge (family business).  Livestock farming (3). From two to ten years. No contract. Slaughtering animals, helping in work with livestock.

Dates show that there are prolonged periods of women´s employment without contracts. There are also women who have contracts but this situation is not permanent throughout their job trajectories. Specifically, nine of the forty women have worked with contracts at some point in their lives, seven women have always worked in the underground economy without a contract, and twenty-four women have had jobs with and without contracts. The working situation for these women is characterized by

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 89 constant entries into and exits from the labour market, as well as instability, insecurity and/or a lack of professional definition with contracts having only minimum durations. Only two women had permanent contracts throughout their professional lives. These women frequently worked in areas such as domestic service, public cleaning services, food services, small businesses, personal image, farming and dependent care. With regard to contracts, most of these occupations involve under-employment or underground work, which seem to be more frequent or more likely for women. Currently, all of the women who participated in this study are looking for a job. Only seven women have paid jobs. Thus, there is special meaning given to the employment measures and/or occupational training activities that these women participate in, as well as from the part-time work that they perform in combination with family care. We found that women´s current training-labour occupationand the following main characteristics:

Type of contract, type of occupational sector and length of the training-labour occupation

 Occupations: Measures for promoting employment, occupational training activities (40); Supermarkets (2), Elder care (1) and Domestic Service (1).  The situations: New learning contract (11); Without contract (33),with temporary contract (2).  Length: In general, between the categories (1) A year, months, punctual; (2) A long time ago, until they find something better, temporary; (3) Two hours a day, temporary; and (4) Until they find something better, temporary.

Women generally expressed a desire to find new professional alternatives that were of greater quality.The women were either unemployed, had temporary paid jobs, had jobs within the underground economy or had apprentice contracts.

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Towards the Employment of Women: Difficulties and Possibilities

Women were asked to respond to the following questions during the interviews: What does working mean to you? And how do you prioritize work with regard to your other roles, for example, maternity? One woman responded with the following: “For me, to work is to have a paid job with certain conditions that are constant. This corresponds to a professional profile in which you feel useful…” (Marta). Women perceived work as regulated employment, similar to a paid job that provides social status and certain conditions, like security and stability. This concept of work, according to these women, may be associated with the process of genre socialization and with traditional female roles. For women, access to employment has an important position in their lives, although they also feel the necessity of combining work with their role as mothers.

I don´t see housework as a job. For me, in this moment of my life, work comes first. Since I got divorced from my husband, I´ve had to run my home alone and raise my son. It´s clear I have to do housework too and it´s a daily routine that absorbs you, but I wouldn´t give it as much importance as my role as a mother. I need to work to survive, but I try to develop too (Eva).

The focus groups, life stories and field notes revealed that women negatively perceived the labour market, as there are few opportunities and these opportunities are not good for them. Women discussed the labour conditions and opportunities that they perceived in their locations, includingthe professional contexts that they felt would provide opportunities for employment, such as domestic service and farming. One example of a professional context is the agricultural sector, which tends to be a key sector in rural contexts due primarily to the olive harvest. Agricultural tasks are performed in specific manners throughout the year that coincide with harvest periods. Women obtain agricultural jobs through the public service employment agencies in their town halls. These jobs are typically rotational, meaning that women do not have access to these jobs every year. Therefore, their job insertion is intermittent and discontinuous.

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Women have been aware of the discrimination evident in these jobs for a long time, given that these jobs are scarce and women´s labour is less sought after than men´s labour in these conditions.

Women are being discriminated against and now they can´t even pick olives. What is going on? Well, if the price of olives is low, then they prefer to hire men instead of women, because there are more than enough workers… So, what kind of job can you get? (Milagros).

Women proposed a number of job opportunities they were adequate for, which were primarily in cleaning and domestic services in the aforesaid conditions. They discussed how hard the work was, how low the payment they received for it was and their job schedules. In general, their labour situations were not formalized, with the best case being that they had limited contracts that do not provide labour stability.

Women? Here? Cleaning, and that’s it, because there are no stores here that need anybody. Here, there are family businesses, in which each family has its own business (Maria). (…) There are few options (Gertrudis).

Women stated that it was difficult to improve their labour conditions. Although they perceived possible new employment sectors or demands for work, it was hard for them to access other employment alternatives, such as self-employment or employment outside of their contexts, due to the working hours required. The women who had school-aged children, family members to take care of or tasks to attend to did not have time to work. The time required for training and professional qualifications only contributed to their difficulty.

I can´t leave my children from seven in the morning till four in the afternoon. I can´t leave the children alone for that long and I can´t leave them with anyone either, because I had to leave them with my mother-in-law for over a year and now she says that enough is enough (it´s a lot of hours). I havea four-year-old girl and a nine- year-old boy (Margarita).

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The women hoped that their labour situations would improve when their children got older. Now, they considered the possibility of having a person take care of their families and homes, but their low family incomes prevented this possibility.

But you don´t earn enough here to pay a woman to take care of the children. -The thing is, how can I pay a woman for so many hours? -You can´t. -The thing is, if they were a little older… but that´s the problem, they´re still really small and they need me (Lola & Maria’s discussion).

Women noted that family and dependent care entails a great deal of responsibility, effort, work, constancy, commitment and involvement, which affected their professional development. In this sense, women emphasized the labour incompatibility with their family care. Family care was associated, in the women´s opinion, with less independence and a greater loss of free time.

“To look after all of the family members (e.g., husband, children, parents and so on)” (Milagros); “To maintain family stability” (Maria); “Less independence and free time” (Cati); “Limits on the ability to do what I want since my expectations are not compatible with my situation” (Rosa); “To run the family economy alone” (Vanesa); “Tiredness, nerves and stress: Everything you do costs more effort and time” (Carmen).

The women never discussed sharing the housework with their husbands and this did not change when they obtained a job or mentioned the possibility of participating in training activities. Women were the only ones who had to change their schedules to fulfil different roles. They proposed changes regarding family organization to support co-responsibility in childcare and housework. However, for them, family organization remained the same when they had a job or were involved in an occupational training activity.

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Of course, I don´t get any help from my husband regardless of whether I work outside of my home or not. During the olive harvest, for example, when both of us are working, he gets home, has a shower and sits down… and the girl is the one who works, always works, until it´s time to go to bed (Rosa).

Women also mentioned the lack of relevant local resources for job insertion. They noted the lack of nursery schools, school lunch rooms and leisure and free time activities for children, which would allow them to participate in training activities and professional work. The main problem that women discussed was the economic cost of these resources and the impossibility of being able to pay for them.

If you pay half, you´d better stay home and take care of your children, as they will receive better care from you instead of paying another salary from your income? In order for women like us to be able to go out to work, the local authorities would have to propose a lunchroom, a play space or a centre for children to go to once they got out of school. That way, we wouldn´t have to spend most of the low income that we earn from our wages, and the effort, on the economic level, would be worthwhile. Even if we had to pay something, it wouldn´t matter, but it would have to be a reasonable amount that takes into account our economic level (Teresa & Sonia’s discussion).

Aware of the absence of these resources, women proposed access to formal part-time jobs as a solution. Flexible work hours would mean that they could devote time to paid work while their children were at school.

I would like to work, but just a few hours, not all day. For example, the hours that the children are at school. That way you don´t have to leave them with anyone or pay someone to take care of them (Margarita).

Women also discussed their experiences looking for local jobs and the work opportunities that they had. They were listed ona job vacancies list that provides access to temporary jobs with contracts. These jobs last a few months, days or even hours, andthe list establishes a system in which people are constantly entering into and leaving the offered jobs.

94 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women

There aren´t many opportunities in the town so we always get the same jobs in the same conditions, and you can´t seem to go beyond that (Maria & the group in agreement).

Therefore, the women faced two forms of employment, which were to work for another person or to be self-employed. These forms amounted tothe women’s perceived possibilities for insertion. The women preferred to obtain a job within the public sector, but the small private enterprisescaused job opportunitiesto be difficult and temporary. If the women were self- employed, they would be able to combine work with family and home care, which were the women´s concrete requests.

Yes, to set up your own business is riskier but it is what there is to make it get better for you, no? At least for me, it allows me to organize in another way since it isn´t eight hours of working and leaving the children with one person or another.Thus, to be self- employed is easier (Manoli).

An Overview of the Public Services for Employment Training

Women hoped that the training activities would promote employment in their local areas. They perceived these activities as the only alternatives to escaping from their current working situations and hoped to be integrated into the labour market with other conditions. Thus, professional training was viewed as an opportunity to gain an essential learning resource to obtain a job.

Well, here, there are only workshop schools. When they are held, there´s nothing else here if you want to get a better job (Marta & the group in agreement).

Women positively valued these training experiences. The training lasted a specific time and provided women with basic professional qualifications with regard tocertain work sectors. Women who participated in the current study were being trained for the service sector, specifically, in eldercare and house cleaning. These women were notably dissatisfied at the end of the

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 95 training becausethey had expectations of entering the labour market immediately after the training activities were completed. This, however, was not what occurred. When the training concluded, the women had to begin searching for a job with everything they had learned and the work experience they had obtained during the training. Yet, at this point, women had few personal resources for starting an active job search. During the training, they did not receive information about creating their own professional projects or about the current labour market situation. No one helped the womenanalyse the costs of reinitiating a new professional trajectory given their present life conditions (e.g., family responsibilities, husbands with stay-at-home wife mentalities who expected their wives to take care of all of the housework and undefined professional trajectories). During the training process, women felt comfortable in their job rolesas the jobs fulfilled their interests and professional aspirations. They expressed the following: “We were happiest when we had to leave the job because the contract ended or wasn´t renewed” (Eva & the group in agreement). Additionally, the flexibility factor was incorporated into the training activities, as the jobs were flexible and adapted to the women´s life conditions. Thus, through these training activities the women were able to experience the opportunities that were available for self-employment.

Look at those people who are going to come out again, the ones who are going to come out of the workshop school that exists here right now.They left a cooperative, an industry, prepared, the women who were in class with us, but I can tell you right now that I can´t go to work there now.They´re working from 7 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, and I can´t go to work for that time (Carmen). That´s what I meant before: we need a job that will let us do other things, take care of our homes and families, because there are no nursery schools, centres or help for us (Milagros & some women in the group in relative agreement).

The women only participated in a few activities to help them obtain a job. The orientation provided in the workshop encouraged them to make their own curricula, which is a basic step to help them to look for a job later. However, the women noted that learning a few techniques was inadequate for preparing them to face other situations, such as work

96 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women disorientation, a lack of viable labour options and uncertainty in their decisions.

While we´ve been in the employment workshop, we haven´t received information about what we should do later. For example, I was interested in learning about the existing enterprises in the place where I live, specifically how I can apply for a job vacancy and where I can find the job vacancies... (Ana). I´ve felt the same way, because now that we´re about to finish the course, we all feel very good because we have apprentice contracts, but what about later? We return to the same situation that we were in when we began the course. They should change this because this is useless (Aurora & the group in agreement).

Conclusions and Discussion

Women generally experienced negative employment conditions that fostered the continuous situation of under-employment or instability that lasted years. Some women first entered the labour market at 12 or 15 years of age and were still currently working (Le Feuvre & Roseneil, 2014). This highlights the importance of the urgent measures that have been approved to fight against the employment crisis; for example, the bonuses for part- time contracting should notbe viewed as alternatives to maintaining employment. Women who participate in this research relieved that the partial work and professional trajectory has to including a negative effect on job satisfaction and well-being. These data are inconsistent with the results of Montero & Rau (2015) that show that this negative effect is evidenced by men and not by women.Women are the first to experience harm due to the lack of flexibility in the labour market, as they are obligated to combine their work and family lives given the lack of structures and public services that guarantee life quality, development and social equity. Thus, public services supporting employment are relevant for providing development opportunities. However, the data are consistent with Magidimisha & Gordon (2015) who show an increase in unemployment and informal and unstable employment for women. The women who participated in this research should by now have obtained jobs in the places where they lived or in neighbouring areas, which would allow them to take care of their families. The work options that these

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 97 women had access offered extremely low wages for the places where they lived (e.g., shop assistants, cleaning and dependent care). These jobs are generally characterized by insecurity, a lack of social recognition and temporariness. These conditions are a consequence of the gender distinction that is evident in the labour market, which feels like a “vicious cycle” for women. Similarly, these conditions are influenced by other exclusion factors, such as age, race, qualifications (Susinos, Calvo & García, 2014; Magidimisha & Gordon, 2015), economic possibilities andgender cultures of the women’s partners or husbands (Yomtoob, 2015). The women’s specific conditions with regard to maternity and family responsibilities influenced their opportunities duringthe training activities and when they were applying for jobs. The number of children and the ages of the children were important factors that affected the women’s responsibilities and occupations, as children could limit the women’s possibilities with regard to combining their home lives with other facets, such as work. In sum, the results indicated that children were the most influential factor determining the women’s wages and working conditions, related to maternity.This is, according to Guerrina (2001), equality is more formal than real. When women excel in their work, theyare not provided with opportunities for family reorganization, distribution of housework or shared family responsibilities with other family members (Daly, 2011). The new roles are added to their many occupations, which has a multiplying effect. It is as if the women are experiencing double and triple working days (the multiple roles conflict), as the womenaccept roles thatare associated with aspects of paid workers and students. This gender distinction at work and in life makes women unavailable for employment, as they must “reconcile” their family responsibilities (Rubery & Urwin, 2011), which continue to fall almost entirely on them in both the personal and labour environments. Additionally, there is a lack of resources in rural areas, especially during crisis times, which negatively influence women's resources and cultural patterns (i.e., there is a return to traditional roles). Women emphasized that there was a lack of family support services, such as nursery schools and centres for the youngest children, but they also noted the high economic cost and the distance of some of the centres that they were aware of. Again, personal and economic situationswere determining factors for women´s professional careers, leading them to question the necessity of working given the economic and personal efforts that they had to engage in to

98 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women improve their professional development. The lack of resources was also associated with the training activities that were offered to them and with their opportunities to access to these activities in order to improve their professional opportunities. In general, neither the area where these women lived nor their present situations prior to employment influenced their lives. The women in this study lived in small towns, some further than others from the capital, and some more or less developed. The women stayed in these towns where a sexist consciousness about women´s life roles is deeply rooted. In our opinion, this is what currently defines their idiosyncrasy, as it is associated with the scarce development of some of these rural contexts. Thus, the initiative of some of these women from these contexts to acquire qualifications for insertion is relevant, as it shows that they are becoming aware of their particular situations. However, this interest still resides in the family sphere, which requires to some extent the women’s partners’ consent and the possibility of changing family customs. Spain has an important structural problem in that women have been in charge of daily life, the elders and the family. Generally, the women in this study positively perceived the training that they were offered, as it provided knowledge and offered the possibility to be with other women and enter new social spaces. However, the women viewed the functional qualities for labour insertion and for continuity as the most negative aspects of the training. Thus, some resources are reaching the local context, which results in political and legislative developments that women benefit from. However, to what extent do these developments respond to women´s demands? The women had the following specific demands regarding the different training activities: flexible scheduling, the inclusion of information and professional orientations during the training process, greater continuity in this process and the possibility to prepare a coherent, viable work itinerary. Despite the undeniable progress, women continue to experience difficulty when entering the labour market, and these difficulties are associated with the type of training activities that they have access to. Regardless of how functional the training activities may be for women, the main problems are its temporary nature and the abandonment of these activities once the women have completed the training without offering more complete training that would aid in the preparation of their professional projects. Equality policies are key words but their needs to be a

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 99 way to evaluate them. Affirmative action allows us to compensate for inequalities, but it is not the solution to this problem nor is it the best thing for women´s professional development. Specific actions are needed to integrate broader measures that encourage women to initiate or reorient their professional and life trajectories so that they can become more autonomous and respond to their own desires. We posit that the public services for employment and the occupational training that the women in this study participated in to acquire qualifications to obtain a job are necessary. These services create employment niches that allow contract conditions to be more permanent and uninterrupted, which provides people with security, for example,to allow them to acquire a home. Therefore, the apprentice contracts given to women who engage in the occupational training measures, such asthe employment workshops, should be paid for by unemployment and have a more permanent nature. This wouldprovide real forms of continuity for labour insertion after the achieving a qualification. Our final conclusion is regarding the public services for employment and professional training, which should support the construction of personalized itineraries for labour insertion, be more effective instruments for the employment search and aid in people´s professional development in general and adult women from rural contexts in particular. Ayala-Mira, Guerrero and Franco (2015) stated that it is not adequate today attention to the number of resources available in rural areas; rather, the resources should adapt to local needs and employment opportunities, as well as raise awareness to support cultural changes. The current research indicates that rural adult women are important drivers of change when they promote models and break gender gaps that may not have all of the desired effects that generation of women demand. These women are contributing to providing more opportunities for the next generation of women, their daughters.

Acknowledgment

We would like to thanks all women that have participated and continuing participating in this research. Also, to the institutions and agencies that have funded it in their different phases (University of Seville and Goverment of Andalusian, and Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, in the frame of the Stays of mobility abroad “Jose Castillejo for young doctors” 2011 and 2014).

100 Suárez-Ortega – Work Situation of Rural Women

Notes

1 We are currently developing a I+D Project entitled Career design and management of entrepreneurship talent, financed by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy and Competitiveness, 2013-2016, State Plan on Excellence, with Reference EDU2013-45704-P. Coord. by Suárez-Ortega, M., Universidad de Sevilla. In this Project we deepen the existing gender gap between Spanish women and men entrepreneurs. 2 According to the Ministry of Employment and Social Security (2014) with regard to the enterprise structure and demography, the profile of the Spanish autonomous is developed by workers in the service sector with out responsible employees, with one activity sector, primarily male and between the ages of 40 and 54 years. It requires approximately five years or more to build a business and listed by the minimum contribution base (about 800-1000 euros). In total, 65.5% of self-employed individuals are male, where as only 34.4% are female. 3 It is part of my Ph.D. research on “The construction of the life-work project of adult women: a challenge for the guidance process.” This research was carried out at the end of 2006, developed as a biographical-narrative process, developed from 2012 to present (Suarez-Ortega, 2013).

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Suárez-Ortega, M. (2013). Performance, Reflexivity, and Learning Through Biographical-Narrative Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(3), 189- 200. doi:10.1177/1077800412466223 Susinos, T., Calvo, A. & García, M. (2014). Retrieving feminine experience: Women´s education in twentieth-century Spain base don three school life histories. Women´s Studies International Forum, 31(6), 424-433. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2008.09.004 Torns, T.; Carrasquer, P.; Moreno, S. & Borras, V. (2013). Career Paths in Spain: Gendered division of Labour and Informal Employment. Revue Interventions économiques, 47. Retrieved from http://interventionseconomiques.revues.org/1935 Yomtoob, D.. (2015). Panel: Spotlight: The Power of Women of Color Voices. Development at Eleventh Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois at urbana-Champaign, May. Final Programe Retrieved from http://icqi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/QI2015- Final-Program-043015.pdf.

Magadalena Suárez-Ortega is Professor in the Departament of Methods of Research and Diagnosis in Education at University of Seville, Spain. ORCID id: 0000-0002-0188-3074

Contact Address: Magdalena Suárez Ortega, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Dpto. MIDE (Métodos de Investigación y Diagnóstico en Educación), Universidad de Sevilla; C/ Pirotecnia, s/n (4.47) 41013-Sevilla, Spain Email: [email protected]

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Los Grupos de Discusión en Investigación Cualitativa, por Rosaline Barbour

Helena Prieto Sanz1

1) Universitat de Barcelona, España

Date of publication: February 28th, 2016 Edition period: October 2015 – February 2016

To cite this article: Prieto, H. (2016). Los grupos de discusión en investigación cualitativa [Book Review]. Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 105-107. doi:10.17583.qre.2016.1967

To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.17583.qre.2016.1967

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY).

Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 pp. 105-107

Review I

Barbour, R. (2013). Los grupos de discusión en Investigación Cualitativa. Madrid: Ediciones Morata. ISBN: 978-84-7112-731-0

La obra Los grupos de discusión en Investigación Cualitativa se enmarca en la colección Investigación Cualitativa y completa el volumen sobre las tres formas fundamentales de recogida de datos en este enfoque de investigación junto con Las entrevistas en Investigación Cualitativa (Kvale, 2007) y Etnografía y observación participante en Investigación Cualitativa (Angrosino, 2007). Desde este paradigma la profesora Rosaline Barbour, catedrática de Universidad de Salud y Trabajo Social en la Escuela de Enfermería y Obstetricia de la Universidad de Dundee (Escocia, Reino Unido), ahonda en la técnica de los grupos de discusión como estrategia utilizada en diversas investigaciones cualitativas de distintos campos como el sanitario, el social o bien desde la investigación de mercado. Desde el primer capítulo, Barbour describe el escenario cualitativo en que se enmarca esta técnica analizando su definición y recabando cuáles son sus antecedentes históricos de modo que facilita al lector la ubicación de esta técnica permitiéndole dotar de mayor sentido al contenido que prosigue en los siguientes 10 capítulos. A lo largo de estos, se exponen diversos problemas que le puede surgir al equipo investigador durante el diseño del proyecto de investigación, la planificación, la realización de los grupos de discusión o la generación de datos, redacción y difusión de resultados. Una constante que acompaña al lector durante toda la obra es el potencial de los grupos de discusión: cuándo debemos usar esta técnica en lugar de realizar entrevistas, cuál es el valor de la interacción entre los participantes -que el investigador no solo puede describir las opiniones recogidas sino también analizar a partir de la interacción el porqué de esta opiniones y actitudes construidas por parte de los participantes- así como

2016 Hipatia Press ISSN: 2014-6418 DOI: 10.17583/qre.2016.1967 106 Prieto – Los Grupos de Discusión [Book Review] cuál es su potencial en el análisis de datos. A su vez, Barbour arroja luz sobre el fundamento racional que debe acompañar el uso de esta técnica así como sobre las ventajas e inconvenientes de emplearla en estudios enfocados desde un método cualitativo o bien desde uno mixto. Más allá del diseño de la investigación, también se abordan cuestiones prácticas como el muestreo (composición del grupo, técnicas de muestreo e implicaciones de las decisiones tomadas durante la preparación de la técnica); los aspectos a tener en cuenta durante la realización de la técnica (como la disposición de la escena, las habilidades ydestrezas de los moderadores); la recogida de datos (grabaciones, transcripciones, toma de notas) o los materiales de estímulos que pueden facilitar el posterior análisis de datos. En relación a esta fase, Barbour nos orienta en cuál es el papel que juegan los marcos de codificación o bien cómo podemos hacer uso de las características que identifican al grupo de discusión para potenciar al máximo el análisis, por ejemplo, para la comparación de datos entre grupos de discusión. Por último, la obra comprende todo un capítulo sobre las consideraciones éticas que conlleva el trato con los participantes en el diseño y planificación de la técnica, en su ejecución y en el posterior trato que da el equipo investigador a los datos obtenidos desde las voces de los mismos protagonistas. Además del detalle y profundidad con que se analizan las distintas cuestiones relativas a los grupos de discusión, cabe destacar la facilidad y comodidad con qué Barbour expone tales contenidos. En el inicio de cada capítulo se establece qué es aquello que quiere hacer llegar al lector y, por otra parte, en el cierre de cada capítulo se concreta un conjunto de puntos clave que recogen toda la información expuesta. La mayoría de fragmentos están acompañados por ejemplos clarificadores de los que es conocedora la autora o de los que es protagonista, proximidad que ayuda al lector a comparar sus experiencias profesionales con las expuestas en la obra. A su vez, puede ahondar en aquellos aspectos que sean de mayor interés a través de las obras recomendadas al final de cada capítulo. Esta bibliografía detallada adicional aporta nuevos conocimientos tanto a investigadores noveles que se adentran en el mundo del paradigma cualitativo como a experimentados investigadores de distintas disciplinas.

Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1) 107

References

Angrosino, M. (2007) Ethnographic Research and Participant Observation (Vol. 3 de The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit). Londres: Sage. (Trad. Cast.: Etnografía y Observación Participante en Investigación Cualitativa. Madrid. Morata, 2012). Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews (Vol. 2 de The SAGE Qualitative Research Kit). Londres: Sage. (Trad. Cast.: Las entrevistas en Investigación Cualitativa. Madrid. Morata, 2010.)

Helena Prieto Sanz Universitat de Barcelona [email protected]

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List of Reviewers

Date of publication: February 28th, 2016 Edition period: October 2015 - February 2016

To cite this article: (2016). List of Reviewers. Qualitative Research in Education, 5(1), 108. doi:10.17583/qre.2016.1933

To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.17583/qre.2016.1933

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE The terms and conditions of use are related to the Open Journal System and to Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). Qualitative Research in Education Vol.5 No.1 February 2016 p.108

List of Reviewers

The Qualitative Research in Education journal thanks 2015 reviewers for their inestimable contribution to raise the quality standart of the journal. The journal wishes to convey special thanks to:

Raúl A. Barba-Martín & Aitor Gómez Co-Editors

Boluda, Gemma Leite Méndez, Analia Elizabeth Bonell, Lars Manrique Arribas, Juan Carlos Bright, Geoff Martín Dominguez, Jorge Calvo Salvador, Adelina Martínez González, Alejandro Capllonch Bujosa, Marta Martínez Scott, Suyapa Casado Berrocal, Oscar Owton, Helen Correa Grospe, José Miguel Pérez Curiel, Ana Chadderton, Charlotte Pérez Pueyo, Ángel Del Moral Arroyo, Gonzalo Perhamus, Lisa Dominguez Hernandez, Fernando Pinedo, Ruth Ellison, Michele Preston, John Fernández-Rio, Francisco Javier Puertas Yañez, Amaya García Raga, Laura Randall, Carla González Calvo, Gustavo Rodriguez Hoyos, Carlos Gutierrez, Alfonso Rojas-Drummond, Sylvia Haley, Karen Shaw, Angela J. Hortigüela Alcalá, David Sierra Arizmendiarreta, Beatriz James, Natalia Torrego Egido, Luis Kerawalla, Cindy Torrego González, Alba Lazo, Carmen Marta Valverde Berrocoso, Jesús Learreta Ramos, Begoña Wischman, Anke