RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: DEVELOPING THE TOOLS FOR INTERROGATING SCHOOL LANGUAGE CHANGE
3.9 Data analysis
3.9.2 Motivation for choice of sensitising concepts
The motivation for selecting sensitising concepts from Douglas (1997) and Skutnabb- Kangas & Garcia (1995) on critical change issues and encouraging a shift from
monolingual to multilingual education to interrogate school language change in the study is rendered in the following discussion.
Douglas (1997) locates his interrogation of intended change in the field of social psychology and describes the change process as an intentional activity directed by trained professionals or friendly helpers to alter the behaviour of an individual or individuals in a quest to make their behaviour socially acceptable. Thus, his conception of change agents ranges from professionals including psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers who have the legal and professional responsibility to effect behavioural change in others to helpers, trained or otherwise, who consciously attempt to alter some aspect of the lives or behaviour of others. Douglas (1997) contends that a complexity of factors ranging from cultural to unconscious motivations to social factors impact on human behaviour and invariably influence change efforts and it is this contention which provides a point of resonance between the work of change agents in the fields of psychology and social work and agents of educational change who are similarly sensitive to these factors in their quest to bring about and sustain change.
Douglas (1997) is concerned with the activity of change agents and the processes, methods, concepts and beliefs which support them and not the status of the change agent.
However, Douglas (1997) does assert that the distinguishing characteristic of a change agent is that a change agent‟s main task is change and intervention. Thus, while he also explores intended change in organizations through the processes of management, he contends that although managers may seek to change individuals or groups within the organization with a view to improving efficiency and output, change is not their main function as it is with the trained helpers and professionals mentioned above. Their most important functions are usually concerned with the creation and maintenance of a system and structure within which it should be possible to maximize the creation of the organisation‟s end product and such changes as are made managerially are basically directed at maintaining or increasing functional efficiency of the organization (Douglas 1997). At best he describes them as “semi change agents”. Because the main functions of the change agents in this study are teaching, school management and school governance
and not primarily effecting educational change, they would technically fall out of the ambit of change agents as conceived by Douglas (1997) or at best might also be regarded as semi change agents. However, he adds that no matter how the processes of intended change are described or justified and no matter what ways are found to give the change agents credibility, at bedrock they are simply attempts to change behaviour by the application of some form of influence, direct or indirect. In light of this and noting that the focus of this study is school language change which in a large part involves application of some sort of direct influence to engender a positive disposition towards school language change of educators, parents and other stakeholders, the change agents in this study, like Douglas‟ (1997) change agents, share the same quest i.e. effecting and sustaining change. However, this study argues for a broader application of the concept of change agents to encompass teachers, school managers and other education stakeholders working to drive educational change within and across schools. Hence, change agents as conceived of in this study are drawn from Fullan & Stiegelbauer‟s (1991) conception of educational agents of change16.
The change efforts of professional change agents as conceptualized by Douglas (1997) are informed by theories of change that seek to provide an explanation for the process of change of the individual in group situations as well as behaviourist theories that seek to explain the sources of human behaviour. While Douglas (1997) concedes the usefulness of this theoretical basis for change, he cautions against over reliance on one or more of these theories. He contends that there are a complexity of factors that impact on human behaviour which include effects on behaviour of culture, belief systems, moral and legal systems, educational and political systems, unconscious motivations, the drives and social factors. It is this very contention that provides a point of resonance between the work of Douglas‟ (1997) change agents and the efforts of change agents in this study. While teachers, school managers and other educational stakeholders may not base their change efforts on behaviourist theories, they have experience of individual and group behaviour
16 In “The New Meaning of Educational Change”, Fullan & Stiegelbauer (1991) explore the roles of teachers, principals, parents and superintendents as agents of educational change. The role of teachers in transforming classroom practice, the role of principals in initiating and facilitating continuous improvements and changes in their schools, the role of parents in initiating organizational change, not just an individual classroom change and the role of superintendents in leading change within and across school districts are explored by Fullan & Stiegelbauer.
which has sensitized them to the complexity of human behaviour and the factors impacting on human behaviour and this experience might be useful in their attempts to initiate and sustain change. In addition, educational change agents, particularly educators and school managers, possess expertise, which includes skills and knowledge related to teaching and school management, to guide their change efforts. Fullan (1993) regards practices of inquiry and mastery as core capacities for agents involved in educational change. Fullan (1993) conceptualizes inquiry as internalizing norms, habits, and techniques for continuous learning and views mastery as not just thinking one‟s way into new visions and ideas but also a means for achieving deeper understanding. Fullan (2005a) also stresses the need for educational change agents to acquire change knowledge, which he describes as understanding and insight about the process of change and the key drivers that make for successful change in practice. While the context in which Douglas‟ (1997) change agents operate is very different from an educational context and while the change issues they grapple with, have little to do with school language change, there are points of resonance, in addition to those already identified between their change efforts and those of the change agents in this study.
In both cases critical change issues like the preconditions for change, the forms of sustained change, the factors that support or impede change and the consequences of change are remarkably similar. Recognizing the universal nature of change and seeking to deepen understanding of the process of school language change which involves inter alia an understanding of how school language change is negotiated or forced, managed and operationalised, sustained or subverted, this study relates the process of school language change not only to the process of general educational change but also the process of intended change involving behaviour modification from a social psychological perspective. This inter-disciplinary focus, it is suggested, would allow for a richer, fuller and thicker analysis of the data, which pushes beyond espoused data. It is for this purpose that sensitizing concepts focusing on critical change issues from Douglas (1997) have been used to guide and orient the data analysis.
Skutnabb-Kangas & Garcia (1995) propose guiding principles for education leading to bi- or multilingualism as a framework to evaluate various models of bi- or multilingual education. These authors offer the principles as suggestions of the important characteristics that they perceive as desirable or required of educational agents and the educational culture/context to encourage and sustain multilingual education. Skutnabb- Kangas & Garcia‟s (1995) principles are not only instructive for the purposes of evaluating models of bi- or multilingual education but a useful analytical tool for interrogating attempts to initiate and sustain school language change where such change involves promoting bi- or multilingual education which is the intention of the change agents in this study.
Among the educational agents identified for the successful implementation and sustainability of bi- or multilingual education are multilingual administrative staff, bi- or multilingual teachers, committed bi- or multilingual or monolingual parents and progressively multilingual students. The educational culture/context for multilingual education contemplated by Skutnabb-Kangas & Garcia (1995) include a multilingual educational context, multilingual language policy, multilingual educational strategies, multilingual materials and multilingual fair assessment. The characteristics of these educational agents and the educational culture are fleshed out in the review of the literature.
Skutnabb-Kangas & Garcia‟s (1995) guiding principles for multilingual education used as sensitizing concepts to guide data analysis are merged with sensitizing concepts extracted from Douglas‟ preconditions for and consequences of intended change. In interrogating the sensitizing concepts drawn from Douglas (1997) and Skutnabb-Kangas
& Garcia (1995) a synergy between Douglas‟ (1997) contemplation of the change process and Skutnabb-Kangas & Garcia‟s (1995) principles for implementing and sustaining multilingual education is detected and forwarded. For example, Douglas (1997) identifies the need for a network of support to create sustainable change. This precondition for durable change is echoed by Skutnabb-Kangas & Garcia‟s (1995) contention that planning for multilingual education requires the active involvement of agents from the
school and the community and that these agents must be engaged in developing a school culture that supports multilingualism. The characteristics of educational agents and the educational culture further amplify the support role and support structures for multilingual education played by the educational agents and educational culture respectively.
Like Douglas (1997), Skutnabb-Kangas & Garcia (1995) contribute to an inter- disciplinary interrogation of the process of change by extending the change debate beyond educational change to contemplating the highly contested and sensitive issue of language change. Thus, using sensitizing concepts drawn from Skutnabb-Kangas &
Garcia (1995) to analyse the data allows for richer interpretation of the data and pushes beyond ordinariness of data analysis and representation.