Student Success Narratives: An Autoethnographic Inquiry Into Leadership for Student Support in International Service-Learning

• In Event: Social and Emotional Dimensions of Study Abroad Programs: Autoethnographies of Leadership and Student Support

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the complexity of the dynamic relationships between teacher-leaders themselves between teacher-leaders students during international service learning (ISL) trips. These relationships are critical to investigate for their influence on student success during these trips.

Theoretical framework
While the broader purpose of this particular study addressed the nature of student learning during international service learning, the focus of this paper is on teacher-teacher relationships, teacher leadership, and the development of students’ intercultural understanding. Three theoretical frames were employed to analyse the students’ experiences: Bennett’s (2004) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) was utilized to identify and map the students’ intercultural sensitivity over the course of the trip; Mezirow’s (1997) transformative learning theory (TLT) was used to examine how students moved along the DMIS based on their change in ‘frame of reference’ (Mezirow, 1997, p. 6); and Vygotsky’s (2012) conceptions of speech (egocentric, inner, external) and individualisation were used to examine the ways in which the students’ language use reflected their troubling of intercultural experiences as they developed independent understandings of their experiences and the cultures of the host nation.

Methods and data
The larger study employed an ethnographic case study approach to develop deep understanding of the students’ experiences. As the researcher, I wanted to have a personal role in the process of understanding how and why students’ learning developed through ‘complex interrelationships’ (Stake, 1995, p. 37) during the field experience. In the reconstruction, examination, and analysis of the relationship between student experience and teacher leadership, I used autoethnography to triangulate the students’ and teachers’ interviews. Personal narratives do more than ‘just tell stories’ (Duncan, 2004. p. 31); they ‘provide reports that are scholarly and justifiable interpretations based on multiple sources of evidence’ (p. 31).
Nine students and two teacher-leaders participated in the research. The students and the two teacher-leaders were interviewed at the beginning of the trip. The students were then interviewed during the trip, and three months after the trip. The students’ and teacher-leaders’ responses were then thematically coded.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Three main themes emerged: alienation of students from the teacher-leaders; disrespect by students towards the teacher-leaders; and social fracturing among the students. The power dynamic between the two teacher-leaders was such that the two teachers were limited in the nature of their support for, and connection with, the students. As the students felt increasingly alienated, the students came to disrespect the dominant teacher-leader. This, in turn, left students feeling unsupported and caused conflict and fracturing among the group.


Scholarly significance of the study or work
This paper provides insight into the ways that teacher-leaders’ relationships with other leaders and students influence the secondary school students’ experience during international service learning programmes.

Author

• Sarah Rutherford, Monash University