The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the critical reflective dialogue of a collaborative team composed of a cooperating teacher, a native language informant, and a researcher. The goal of this task-based team was to develop and implement a culture-based thematic unit on Puerto Rico for a second year Spanish class in an American public high school. The process of group deliberation is described as an interactional experience that involves tension as a normative behavior (McCutcheon 1995, Zacarian, 1996). This study examined the claim that groups comprised of members from diverse cultures and differing professional knowledge systems are more likely to experience tension (Deketelaere & Kelchtermans, 1996; McCutcheon, 1994; Zacarian, 1996). However, when members are willing to critically and collaboratively examine their tension, it can have positive effects on their communicative process, curricular task, and professional development by allowing members to benefit from the 'complementary competence' of the different collaborating professionals (Deketelaere & Kelchtermans, 1996; McCutcheon 1995, Zacarian, 1996). This study also examined the claim that the language used by speakers in groups reflects their ideologies, social relations, and identities that are continually co-constructed during their interactions (Schiffrin, 1994, p. 106). This study researched these claims by analyzing the critical reflective dialogue that emerged within the planning and implementation phases of a collaborative curriculum development team. The results of this research reveal that the critical reflective dialogue of the collaborative team members influenced a shift in their initial ideologies. The results also reveal that accompanying this shift in ideologies was a realignment of the social relations and identities of the group members. It was found that the NLI contributed to the collaborative curriculum process in significant ways and at multiple levels. Further, the findings suggest that including the NLI in the implementation phase provided communicative opportunities for all parties to engage in a critical reflective dialogue that moved beyond mere technical and practical curricular concerns. In this study it provided collaborative members with increased opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of the complex issues of stereotypes from multiple perspectives. Most significantly, it was seen that engagement in a critical reflective dialogue provided the CT with the opportunity to examine her own assumptions on her own innocence with regard to stereotypes about the culture and people of Puerto Rico.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-1698 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Creators | Szewczynski, Joyce L |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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