Roxanne's Story

By Author: peter
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In this section, I illustrate the three story levels by presenting extracts from Roxanne's story constructed during our narrative inquiry exemplar in South Africa. Roxanne taught English at primary and high schools in a west African country (where she was born) before moving to another country in southern Africa where she taught English at university level. She then moved to South Africa and continued her teacher education by embarking on a further qualification. The following extract from her written narrative clearly suggests context at a personal level; specifically her inner thoughts about her philosophy of teaching and her goals for her students.

I desire to impart knowledge effectively to learners in a manner that they will clearly Patek Philippe Replica understand each topic of discussion and develop a love for English as a second language. This desire motivates me to prepare very well before going to the classroom to teach. There is also the desire in me for my students to develop proficiency in the language and display ...
... this by participating actively in class activities, perform well in tests and exams, but more importantly, for them to acquire lifelong skills in effective communication (both in written and spoken) in English in different settings.

Roxanne remarked in her analysis of her narrative (the second part of the assignment) that writing her story was the first time she had articulated this personal dimension of her teaching life: 'it has given me the opportunity to reflect critically on some important aspects of my life that I have not given serious consideration to previously, especially my learning/teaching experiences in the [west African] E S L context'.

At this level, Roxanne's story connects with Stories going on at a level outside her immediate domain; that is, the context is such that her control of her practice within it is not as intimate and secure as at the level of story (with a small s). The following extract illustrates this contextual level:

School inspectors (experienced teachers) from the Department of Education also come regularly to inspect the teaching/learning activities going on in the schools. All of these are done to ensure that the required standard is maintained. I learnt a lot from all these experienced teachers. Here, Roxanne reports on an external monitoring process, and her comment suggesting that she learnt much from such surveillance is evidence of the story-Story connection. The next extract is part of a longer story which relates her experiences of teaching a literature-based English course for the first time, in an unfamiliar cultural context. In the final sentence she once again connects this wider context to her own personal practice.

I had a more mature group of students from an entirely different cultural background, more numerous in number than each of the classes I had taught previously and a new course, Literature and Society, which I had to relate to their society and culture. It was quite challenging at first. Throughout Roxanne's narrative she makes connections to STORIES which relate closely to her own. For example, the bad economic situation in her country meant that she had to put off her teacher education for a few years.

I had to work after high school in order to save some money for my university education Tag Heuer Replica because of the economic situation of my family and most families in [the country] under military dictatorship. During this period, the economy of [the country] was in a very bad shape and many workers were retrenched from work without any benefits. Once she qualified as an English teacher the government Education Department deployed her (as it did all graduates) to teach in a location different from where she lived:

A program was designed to promote unity to some extent. Graduates who qualify ... are sent to states different from their states of origin in order for them to be introduced to different cultures and languages in the other part of the country. Since I hail from [name of] state and speak [name of] language, I was posted to [name of] state with a language and culture different from mine.
In order to qualify and work as a teacher in the context of this STORY, Roxanne had to go along with these conditions. She had no power to resist them.