Conflict Avoidance, Resistance, and the Emergence of Agency in a Mexican Change Laboratory

• In Event: 44.082 - Change Laboratories Across Cultures: Lessons From Formative Interventions in Work and Education

Abstract

Despite the maturity of the Change Laboratory method (Virkkunen & Newnham, 2013) developed in 1995 in Finland, which has hitherto been used widely on a global scale in many different sectors, there is a need to reflect on how cultural diversity and disciplinary variation may inform and affect the application of the method in different local contexts.

This paper aims to identify dimensions of cultural variation in conducting a Change Laboratory intervention at the Engineering Division (DICIS) of the University of Guanajuato (Mexico) focusing on the development of new English language teaching and learning opportunities for its students (Montoro, 2016). This contribution will analyze what makes this Change Laboratory unique and different from others in an effort to develop the method further in both practical and theoretical directions.

Firstly, the paper will account for cultural-historical elements within the Mexican society and this particular university context that have been shaping education practices and beliefs in recent times, especially in relation to the second-language learning and teaching activity in question, its genesis, nature and the background of its participants. Particular attention will be paid to the stage of development of the activity in this educational organization, as it will be argued that what can be achieved with the Change Laboratory is tightly linked to the stage at which the activity is found presently.

On a second level of analysis, a primary contradiction seemed to exist in students’ learning insofar as learners were split between those who engaged in the activity to earn academic credits and those who did so to learn English. This resulted in different orientations to studying, in pursuit of either learning or gaining, which caused significant losses in the educational process. As for teachers, their current working conditions seemed to create resistance in them to the new dynamic assessment model, as it involved more work for no additional income. Yet, they acknowledged that new teacher training opportunities could help them to improve their practice, even if existing teaching methodologies remained unchanged. The application to this Change Laboratory of two core theoretical principles, namely the principle of double stimulation and the principle of ascending from the abstract to the concrete, will be carefully examined, with a special emphasis on how the foci of analysis changes as various stimuli and concepts are used in the intervention sessions.

Thirdly, the longitudinal method of analysis of discursive manifestations of contradictions (Engeström & Sannino, 2011) was used to chart the unfolding of the intervention individually and collectively. Two aspects that were particularly relevant for us will be highlighted, namely ways in which interaction was determined by cultural beliefs around conflict avoidance that prevail in this context, and significant deviations between participant actions and instructional intentions, including overt acts of resistance (and the related emergence of agency) and their culture-bound origins. Comparisons will be drawn between results from this intervention and those from similar interventions in other countries to show how cultural-historical factors may explain variations in the results.

Author

• Carlos Montoro, University of Guanajuato