{"id":1872,"date":"2016-09-02T03:12:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T11:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/?p=1872"},"modified":"2017-01-25T14:58:58","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T22:58:58","slug":"significant-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/2016\/09\/02\/significant-conversations\/","title":{"rendered":"Significant conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Come Together\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/26341587@N04\/8578116365\/in\/photolist-e52692-aeephy-bsinAL-deUrAU-saKK8V-5fa9M3-j65ywC-oJxiWy-daJQRP-4zJzDQ-q5DHuc-gbLGfq-dvx4qL-e14ftc-dJvQJ9-4FEfWF-dSTAE5-84fk9t-nbo6j8-aroj64-GQJpqb-dxQYu4-gDr2DV-aMT232-oC7N8G-q9vqbK-svrtUv-BrW7V-oh97i9-ekCzMD-6RzMuj-5KjxR6-r1BLV3-48k9Zk-abmRoX-qZ6Db5-dp8BGJ-8EfDG7-64Nqw5-87tZtH-brdypo-nhX5zx-baHuH2-bgUwiV-H4JDya-dquyr8-dp7nTf-oXHnkv-4bdVhF-4GUmKK\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/c6.staticflickr.com\/9\/8244\/8578116365_3877fd2a44_z.jpg\" alt=\"Come Together\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I prepare for a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/issotl.com\/conf\/index.php\/issotl16\/index\/pages\/view\/Pre-Conference%20Workshops#Networks\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pre-conference workshop<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and conference workshop at the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/issotl.com\/conf\/index.php\/issotl16\/index\/pages\/view\/conference_home\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 2016<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I am reading and blogging on how university instructors learn about teaching through personal networks (my four previous posts on the topic can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/tag\/issotl2016\/\">here<\/a>). The ISSoTL workshops are part of a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/scholarship\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">research project I am collaborating on<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with Gary Poole and Roselynn Verwoord.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today\u2019s post looks at \u201csignificant conversations\u201d and consists of my notes from a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/03075070802597200\">paper<\/a> by Rox\u00e5 and M\u00e5rtensson, two lovely people and terrific scholars I had the pleasure of meeting in 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reference: Rox\u00e5, T. &amp; M\u00e5rtensson, K. (2009). Significant conversations and significant networks: Exploring the backstage of the teaching arena. Studies in Higher Education, 34(5), 547-559.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">**************<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This paper presents results from a study in which Rox\u00e5 &amp; M\u00e5rtensson surveyed 109 university instructors to learn more about their teaching and learning conversation partners. Participants were from the following disciplines: engineering studies, social sciences, humanities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Participants responded to these questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With how many people do you have engaging conversations about teaching and\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">learning?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where are these conversational partners found?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What characterizes your conversations? (Please describe them.)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you consider your local professional culture to be supportive or nonsupportive\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of such conversations about teaching and learning? (this question was only included in the later questionnaires)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The researchers drew on Handal\u2019s (1999) concept of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cs.kent.ac.uk\/people\/staff\/saf\/share\/great-missenden\/reference-papers\/GunnarHandal.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">critical friends<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to \u201cfocus the respondents on individuals with whom they had sincere and serious discussions about teaching and learning\u201d (p.550).<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Summary of results<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><strong>With how many people do you have engaging conversations about\u00a0teaching and learning?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">83% of respondents had up to 10 conversational partners (there were differences among the disciplines)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rox\u00e5 &amp; M\u00e5rtensson found that \u201cuniversity teachers rely on a limited number of individuals to test ideas or solve problems related to teaching and learning\u201d (p.556)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Where are these conversational partners found?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The majority of participants discussed teaching with colleagues within their own discipline. \u00a0Conversational partners, however, were located within or outside the individual\u2019s institution and discipline, and therefore the authors concluded that \u201csignificant networks\u201d have no boundaries surrounding them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>What characterizes your conversations?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Private conversations<\/span>: \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conversations rarely took place in formal meetings (they took place \u201cbackstage\u201d<\/span><\/span><sup>1<\/sup>)<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">though many were backstage, the conversations were not isolated from the surrounding culture<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Trustful conversations<\/span>: \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conversations were about a range of topics (intellectual and emotional)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">there was mutual trust among partners and partners often shared similar interests and values<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">at times, the conversations did not align with the official discourse within the participant\u2019s culture\/context<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Intellectually intriguing conversations:<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conversations\u00a0dealt with important disciplinary content and challenges about how to support student learning<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">participants used these conversations to make sense of experiences, deal with problems, and plan\/evaluate actions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rox\u00e5 &amp; M\u00e5rtensson found that most participants were not drawing on pedagogical literature and theory as they were having these conversations; nor were they making public the results of their inquiry. Rather, they were using \u201cpersonal theories\u201d (p.556)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u201cDo you consider your local professional culture to be supportive or non-supportive of such conversations about teaching and learning\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(this question was posed to only 50 of the participants)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a clear link between how encouraging a culture is and number of conversational partners (i.e., in a supportive culture, individuals have more conversational partners)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Implications<\/b><\/h5>\n<p>Significant conversations have the potential to help university teachers see things through someone else\u2019s perspective. They may shape and\/or expand an individual\u2019s identity as teachers.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the words of the authors: <\/span><b>\u201c<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is likely that these conversations open up the possibility of constructing and maintaining&#8211;and perhaps partly changing&#8211;an understanding about the realities of teaching.\u201d (p.555)<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">**************<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Footnote 1:\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Erving_Goffman\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Erving Goffman\u2019s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0wrote about the concept of \u201cfront stage\u201d and \u201cback stage\u201d behaviors\u00a0in\u00a0his book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Presentation of Self in Everyday Lif<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">e<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1959). Goffman\u00a0proposes\u00a0that we have two different modes of presenting our selves: one when we are &#8216;on&#8217; for others (front stage) and another when we let down our guard (back stage). For a succinct introduction to these concepts, see here at &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.everydaysociologyblog.com\/2012\/05\/rethinking-goffmans-front-stageback-stage.html\">Everyday Sociology<\/a>&#8220;.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I prepare for a pre-conference workshop and conference workshop at the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 2016, I am reading and blogging on how university instructors learn about teaching through personal networks (my four previous posts on the topic can be found here). The ISSoTL workshops are part of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":792,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1484168],"tags":[1484148,1484147],"class_list":["post-1872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-significant-conversations","tag-issotl2016","tag-significant-networks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/792"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1872"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1879,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872\/revisions\/1879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}