Stories+from+service-A+sociocultural+analysis

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**Stories from service: A sociocultural analysis of how stories are used and transformed in cognitively challenging reflection **

Christopher Pupik Dean, doctoral candidate, University of Pennsylvania [cpupikdean@gmail.com]


 * Keywords:** Reflection, transformation, counterexamples, student voice, stories


 * Conference track:** K ‐ 12 civic and learning outcomes


 * Format:** Research paper

This presentation reports findings from a qualitative, sociocultural study that demonstrates how a combination of teacher comments and exposure to counterexamples during reflection led to the transformation of the stories students told about their service experience.
 * Summary**

The data and analysis in this presentation focus on in ‐ class and written reflections that are part of a larger, qualitative examination of a service learning class at an independent Quaker school in a large eastern American city. In the class, 10th grade students tutored 1st graders in a nearby public school. The larger study seeks to answer the question: How do students taking a service learning class learn about public issues, public actions, and the perspectives of others? As a part of this research the author was a participant observer during all class activities; video recorded all non ‐ service activities; interviewed students before, during, and after the course; and collected all written work by 10thgrade students. This data was analyzed for themes according to a sociocultural framework.

Stories were transformed through two interacting mechanisms: teacher comments and counterexamples. Teachers would offer critiques and suggest that students consider other perspectives. A combination of teacher comments and exposure to counterexamples led to the transformation of the stories students told about their service experience.

Practitioners seeking to develop cognitively challenging reflection activities must balance teacher voice and opportunities for students to share their own stories. While teacher commentary plays a role in the transformation of these stories, the counterexamples from others stories of service most likely become incorporated students’ stories about their service experience. The presentation will contain two examples of stories of service transformed through reflection.

 Billig, S. H. (2007). Unpacking what works in service-learning: Promising research-based practices to improve student outcomes. National Youth Leadership Council. Retrieved from www.nylc.org/resources
 * References**

 Cole, M., & Engeström, Y. (1993). A cultural historical approach to distributed cognition. In G. Salomon (Ed.), Distributed cognitions: Psychological and educational considerations (pp. 1–46). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

 Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding. Helsinki: Orienta-KonsultitOy. Retrieved from http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/Paper/Engestrom/expanding/toc.htm

 Lave, Jean, and Etienne Wenger. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1991.  Levine, P., & Higgins-D’Alessandro. (2010). Youth civic engagement: Normative issues. In L. R. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta, & C. A. Flanagan (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement in Youth (E-Book.). Wiley.

 McIntosh, H., & Youniss, J. (2010). Toward a political theory of political socialization of youth. In L. R. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta, & C. Flanagan (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement in Youth. New Jersey: Wiley.

 Miles, Matthew B, and A. M Huberman. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage, 1994.  Strauss, A., and J. Corbin. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Third. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc, 2008.

 Torney-Purta, J., Amadeo, J.-A., & Andolina, M. (2010). A conceptual framework and multimethod approach for research on political socialization and civic engagement. Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement in Youth (E-book.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.


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