EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities I EFL EIGHTH...

EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities I

EFL EIGHTH-GRADERS’ NEGOTIATION CAPACITIES IN A

PEACEFUL CLASSROOM

Paola Andrea Rubiano Arana

20161062018

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

School of Sciences and Education

MA in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English

Bogotá, 2019

EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities II

EFL Eighth-graders’ Negotiation Capacities in a Peaceful Classroom


20161062018

Thesis Director: Álvaro Hernán Quintero Polo, PhD.

A thesis submitted as a Requirement to Obtain the Degree of M.A.

in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

School of Sciences and Education

MA in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English

Bogotá, 2019

EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities III

NOTE OF ACCEPTANCE

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________

Thesis Director:

______________________________________

Álvaro Hernán Quintero Polo, PhD.

Juror:

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Juror:

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EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities IV

UNIVERSIDAD DISTRITAL FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE CALDAS

Acuerdo 19 de 1988 del Consejo Superior Universitario

Artículo 177. “La Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable

de las ideas expuestas en este trabajo.

EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 5

Acknowledgements

I want to say thanks, firstly, to my mom and dad for always trusting in me and

my capacities. Secondly, thanks to my thesis director, Dr. Álvaro Quintero, due to his

great patience and help towards the process of my doing this beautiful work.

Moreover, I give special thanks to my relatives and close friends who have been

encouraging me all the time to achieve my goals and not to surrender in difficult

moments in this process; all their love and confidence have provided me with strength

and motivation to succeed.

In addition, I want to show my gratitude and admiration to the professors in

the Master Program in Applied Linguistics to TEFL who are role models for me in

this teacher researcher process and who have helped me to grow academically and

personally.

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to the participants and institution that

permitted me to do the intervention of this study; without them all this would not be

accomplished.


Abstract

This thesis reports on a qualitative-research project in a private school in Bogotá

that accompanied the production of narratives by teenagers in eighth grade where they

report on intra and interpersonal conflicts they faced. Within the Peaceful classroom

environment, it examines the question: What do eighth-graders’ written life stories

unveil about their capacity for conflict negotiation in a Peaceful classroom

environment? It also aims to discover and display pupils’ negotiation capacities when

facing conflicts autonomously and creatively by means of the L2 – which stands for

Second Language – as a mediator. Analyzing the data, teenagers themselves become

co-interpreters of their own semi-structured interviews and written life stories. The

interpretive inductive approach served as the framework; findings address the interplay

of learners’ negotiation capacity and their autonomy at the time of facing and solving

conflicts.

Key words: peaceful classroom environment, written life stories, negotiation

capacities, autonomous conflicts resolution.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 6

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................................... 17

Statement of the problem ........................................................................................................... 17

Research question and objectives ...................................................................................................... 25

Rationale ....................................................................................................................................................... 25

Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................................... 28

Literature Review .......................................................................................................................... 28

Conflict Resolution ................................................................................................................................... 32

Negotiation in the EFL classroom ...................................................................................................... 41

Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................................... 50

Pedagogical Intervention ............................................................................................................ 50

Setting ............................................................................................................................................................ 50

Teaching Approach .................................................................................................................................. 51

Vision of Language ................................................................................................................................... 53

Vision of Teaching .................................................................................................................................... 53

Vision of Learning ..................................................................................................................................... 54

The Pedagogical Intervention as a tool for innovation ............................................................. 55

Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 56

Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................................... 61

Research Design ............................................................................................................................. 61

Type of study .............................................................................................................................................. 62

Setting ............................................................................................................................................................ 63

Participants ................................................................................................................................................. 63

Role of the Researcher ............................................................................................................................ 65

Ethical issues .............................................................................................................................................. 65

Data Collection Instruments and Procedures ............................................................................... 66

Students written life stories: ........................................................................................................... 66

Interviews: .............................................................................................................................................. 66

Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................................... 68

Data analysis ................................................................................................................................... 68


Procedures of data collection .............................................................................................................. 69

Data management ..................................................................................................................................... 70

Data analysis framework ....................................................................................................................... 71

Chapter 6 ........................................................................................................................................... 75

Findings ............................................................................................................................................. 75

Main category: Sense of autonomy to face conflicts .............................................................. 76

Subcategory 1: conciliation as a tool to reach reciprocal benefits .................................. 82

Subcategory No. 2: self-reference to understand oneself and others ............................ 87

Chapter 7 ........................................................................................................................................... 93

Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 93

Limitations ................................................................................................................................................... 95

Pedagogical Implications ....................................................................................................................... 96

Further Research Questions ................................................................................................................. 97

References ........................................................................................................................................ 98


List of Figures

Figure 1. Co-relations. Conflict resolution and Negotiation capacities as the two main

constructs. Source: own. ........................................................................................... 298

Figure 2. Definition of categories. This figure presents the steps followed to define

the categories described. Highlighting deals with discrimination of important details

found in the written life stories. .................................................................................. 72

Figure 3. Categories and their relation. .................................................................... 753


List of Tables

Table 1. Research Question and Objectives ............................................................. 254

Table 2. Learning objectives and Teaching objectives. ............................................ 564

Table 3. The timetable of the Pedagogical Intervention. ............................................ 57


List of Appendices

Appendix A. ............................................................................................................. 105

Appendix B. ............................................................................................................. 106

Appendix C. ............................................................................................................. 107

Appendix D. ............................................................................................................. 108


Introduction

“[...] conflict education should strengthen a person’s capacity to create

alternative solutions in response to problems” (Gibbons, 2010)

This research study unveiled negotiation capacities found in a group of eighth-

graders at a Catholic school, based on their description of intra and interpersonal

conflicts – the first one is understood as the ones faced and solved introspectively and

with others correspondingly, additionally defined as the ones developed subjectively

where the subject involved intends to preserve self-identity (Mack 2018) – faced

using English as a vehicle to express feelings and outcomes from the conflicts that

participants experienced during their past and their perspectives towards possible

conflicts they think they would be facing in the future (3 years ahead).

I personally believe language learning is a social construction whereby

stakeholders participate equally, as well as construct knowledge using previous

knowledge (previous experiences influence learning inside and outside of the

classroom); therefore, conflicts resolution provides learners chances to enhance their

negotiation capacities at the time of facing challenges in their process and at the time

of negotiating ways to develop several activities.

Consequently, I found it useful to promote a peaceful classroom environment

(Chaux, 2016) with the aim to promote a positive environment for students to

produce their life stories in, becoming agents of their own stories to show their

negotiation capacities at the time they faced conflicts autonomously. Therefore, EFL

– which stands for English as a Foreign Language – eighth-graders’ negotiation

capacities in a peaceful classroom environment was born.


This study was developed with a focus on learners’ negotiation capacities

when facing conflicts, with language as a mediator, within the Master program in

Applied Linguistics to the TEFL at Distrital University in Bogotá, Colombia, and

Discourse Studies within Educational Contexts was chosen as the research area. Its

ultimate goal is to unveil pupils’ negotiation capacities in their written life stories

about conflicts faced and perspectives of possible ones to be faced in the future,

using English as a means to verbalize them.

The social and critical outlook of this study is informed by main authors and

theories such as Vygotsky (1978, 1986), Lantolf (2000); the role of language and

learning in conflict resolution (Vinyamata, 1999) and Gibbons (2010), who

establishes that conflicts are presented when social interaction is held at the moment a

difference in opinions and beliefs shows up, even though, it is worthy to mention not

all differences in opinions generate conflicts. Additionally, negotiation capacities are

described based on Spector (2007), Chaux (2016), Gómez (2005) and Lederach’s

(1997) arguments about abilities learners develop at the time of facing conflicts in an

autonomous and positive manner in order to have a peaceful classroom environment

(Daza & Vega, Cited in Chaux, E., Lleras, J., Velásquez, A.M., 2004) where

everybody can build up knowledge in a cooperative manner.

This thesis consists of seven chapters. The first part contains the justification

where the worth, impact, contribution and purpose of the study are highlighted. Next,

the problem statement is described. I describe the context where the needs analysis

and the data collection took place as well as the theoretical and practical elements I

saw to support the existence of the problem, the research question resulting from the

needs analysis process, and the research objectives I pursued along the research


process.

The second chapter displays the relationship between conflict resolution

(Burton, 1990; Gibbons, 2010; Gómez, 2005; Lederach, late 1980s; Lindelow &

Scott, 1989; Stevahn, 2004; & Vinyamata, 1999) and negotiation capacities

(Bohórquez, Gómez & Mosquera, 2011; Johnson and Johnson, 2003; King and

Stevahn, 2005; Spector 2007) in a peaceful classroom environment (Daza & Vega,

cited in Chaux et al., 2004). Moreover, antecedents are displayed in the literature

review showing different studies made with topics related to conflict resolution and a

little in negotiation capacities in the classroom and related to learning.

Afterwards, come the pedagogical intervention based on sociocultural theory

(Vygotsky, 1978, 1986 & Lantolf, 2000), methodological design based on

Kumaravadivelu (1994), macro-strategies and an adaptation from Canagarajah

(2004), Barkhuizen (2008), Chaux et al.(2004), Chaux (2016) as well as the learning

objectives proposed for the intervention and the criteria to evaluate the outcomes

obtained during the intervention, which served as data to be managed in the data

analysis stage described in the next chapter. As a result of the previous process, the

next chapter is presented displaying the data analysis process, defining the main

category and two sub-categories by the balance between practice and theory-based

sources.

The following chapter, research design, is developed to answer the research

question: What do eighth-graders’ written life stories unveil about their capacity for

conflict negotiation in a Peaceful Classroom environment? The objectives are: to

understand students’ autonomous and creative conflict resolution capacity by the


interpretation of their written life stories and to describe students’ negotiation

capacities at the time conflicts emerge and are faced by them in which the qualitative

paradigm (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994) related to this thesis, along with the interpretive

approach (Creswell, 2013), followed. In addition, the method followed to collect data

was an adaptation from the one proposed in Narrative Inquiry by Lavob (1988) and

the model of short stories analysis (Bamberg, 2006); also, the participants’ profiles,

setting and the ethical considerations are taken into account to develop the analysis

process. Furthermore, the instruments to collect data are described, based on the fact

that there was constant reflection and adjustment of methodology inside the

classroom and along the research process.

The fifth chapter contains the description of the data analysis by the

description of its procedures, firstly as the participants ’contextualization to the

pedagogical intervention, constant training on small-stories development,

interpretation of them and finally, the validation of my insights by means of

interviews done to participants who provided the richest data and accepted to answer

them with the intention co-interpret emergent data. Later, data management is

described based on capacities mentioned by Chaux (2016) to solve conflicts

peacefully at the moment of facing conflicts by themselves, moreover, it is mentioned

that this part of the study was based on the qualitative research umbrella with the

intention to understand my participants’ experiences (Creswell, 2013).

Afterwards, the data analysis framework is displayed highlighting the fact that

the approach used was the Narrative Inquiry (Lerner, 2001 & Quevedo, 2008) as well

as different definitions of narratives based on different scholars (Lavob, 1988;

McEwan & Egan, 1995 & Quintero 2016) and also the description of the adaptation


of an existing model (Bamberg, 2006) with the intention to use it in this study

specifically.

Subsequently there is the findings chapter where the emergent category Sense

of Autonomy to face Conflicts and the two subcategories conciliation to reach

reciprocal benefits and Self-reference to understand oneself and the others are

displayed to answer the research question and reach the proposed objectives. The

manner they emerged, their description, exemplification from different excerpts and

the discussion around theory is presented there as a way to acknowledge the research

process handled.

Finally, conclusions and implications described in this descriptive and

interpretive exercise were developed to begin articulating ideas about the

management of conflicts and peace inside the EFL classroom with eighth-graders at a

Catholic school innovatively using language as an excuse and means to promote

positive interaction, conflict management – considered as the treatment one makes to

faced conflicts – and students’ awareness of their social and local contexts in order

for them to reproduce attitudes and reflections learnt or unlearnt in the research

process.


Chapter 1

Statement of the problem

This chapter gives an overview of the real and genuine issue found to address

throughout this thesis, the theoretical and practical elements I saw to support my

problem statement, and the research question and objectives derived from the

question.

I consider that the social construction of language learning relies on a myriad

of factors that influence it and one of them is the successful social relationships with

others which, in order to be shaped positively, is the result of the autonomous

development of negotiation at the time of facing our own intra and interpersonal

conflicts – previously explained. Consequently, I believe pupils are able to develop

those capacities on their own to face and solve their intra and interpersonal conflicts

autonomously and positively with the purpose of having a positive language learning

environment as a result of that. As a result of reflection on my teaching practices and

the observation of my learners I have noticed that most of the time I focused the class

on structural aspects of the language which resulted in assessing learners’ accuracy

and fluency, but ignoring the communication goal in producing messages to express

ideas and feelings; as a consequence, I noticed my learners’ voices became silenced

and sometimes ignored.

Moreover, interaction in the EFL classroom became neglected under the

excuse that there was little or no time in order to help students to have a harmonious

learning environment, rather than using L2 as an excuse to recognize learners as

agents of their learning and as citizens who can contribute to society’s development.


In the target population of this research, specifically, it has been noticeable how

learners face problems at the time of solving their intra and interpersonal conflicts. It

is difficult for them to give positive feedback to each other respectfully; rather, they

tend to scream at each other and be rude at the time they disagree on an idea. In any

classroom it is crucial to have a good interaction due to the fact students need to talk

and face situations in which they have to work with their classmates. Additionally, it

must be said learners tend to complain to the teacher about the interaction conflicts

they face without trying to provide alternative solutions to the conflicts they faced.

During my first semester classes of the master's program I found it interesting

to integrate “Peace Chair” (Daza, & Vega, Ch. L.M. cited in Chaux et al. 2004) into

my EFL classroom which consists of developing a series of activities to create a

peaceful learning environment with the purpose of enhancing a positive rapport in the

learning environment where the learners become agents of their own peace process

and who have a reflexive point of view towards intra and interpersonal conflicts. One

must bear in mind Colombia’s recent peace process, having as a result a series of

changes in terms of armed conflict based on the fact the Colombian government

signed a peace agreement with armed groups (the FARC guerrilla group, specifically)

who had been attacking the population for more than fifty years and as a consequence

of that, it must be said that to obtain a sustainable and positive peace it is necessary to

include it in all contexts of society in order to be coherent with the process that was

designed to be achieved.

Gómez (2007) argues that in order to at least reach a peace agreement,

transitional justice must be created to make guerrillas stop the armed fight in order to

provide equal conditions to promote a sustainable peace; additionally, reconciliation,


truth, and justice must be taken into account to begin the process. As a consequence,

there is a strong need to obtain equilibrium in justice, and truth must be developed to

remember conflict history and establish clear guarantees for fostering a prolonged

peace agreement; to this end, this process must be transversal.

Initially, I wanted to implement the inclusion of the previously mentioned

chair inside the EFL classroom in order to analyze values promotion and in relation

to that, the citizenship competences enhancement, which are closely related to the

promotion of values for “Peace Chair”. Nevertheless, feedback from my research

class professor and colleagues, as well as revision of the literature of the master’s

program made me reflect upon the relation and relevance of that topic to the applied

linguistics context. As a consequence, I decided to focus my attention on conflict

management by means of negotiation, which is linked to classroom interaction and

can be more feasible in terms of research purposes.

As a result, I carried out a small scale project with two of my master’s

classmates during the first semester, and it served as input to document the existence

of a genuine issue worthy to be studied based on a campaign held at the school where

some pupils were engaged in a little study which inquired about fostering the

campaign called “Good Rapport”, led by a Catholic private institution located in the

northern part of Bogota, Colombia, and within the framework of a small scale project

proposed for the seminar on Teacher Preparation in Theory and Methodology of ELT

in a Master Program in Applied Linguistics to TEFL.

The project consisted of three main stages: the first one was to make

observations, hold some meetings and informal talks with other teachers in order to


acquire information for the needs analysis. The second stage was to write the needs

analysis in order to identify a problem and to propose an innovation that would

contribute in some manner to that issue. Consequently, some activities were planned

for making a link to the “Good Rapport”- translated to English – campaign launched

by the institution. The last stage was to write a report in order to show all the

processes and to give evidence of innovation. Finally, that the innovative part of this

project was the use of English as a crosswise axis during the values and “Good

Rapport” fostering campaign.

At the beginning of April 2016, the aforementioned campaign emerged at the

school led by one of the discipline coordinators and after taking an oral survey with

the chosen grade, this group's needs concerning this issue were established.

According to the needs analysis done by the survey, and the class advisor´s

observation, it can be said that these children face different problems related to the

“Good Rapport” during peer interaction; for instance, the majority of them were not

polite at all when giving feedback to each other during class activities which implies

a kind of contests or competences; they were rude to each other, even during their

soccer matches and during breaks they fought and argued because of several details

that occurred while the game was being played.

At this point, a big question came to light: How could this campaign be

motivating for students? From this perspective, outdoor activities were thought of as a

suitable tool to encourage students’ motivation towards this campaign. In addition,

the English language has to be the vehicle or premise to do this outdoor project.

Moreover, it is worthy to say that in the institution where the small-scale

project was developed, a considerable amount of the classes should be taught inside


the classroom; teachers have submitted some forms beforehand, in which the outdoor

activity is explained in detail to the coordinators and head of the English department.

According to the aforementioned stances and bearing in mind that for the

majority of the children it is almost impossible to maintain the “institutional

discipline” during this kind of practices; it was, however, needed to develop an

outdoor activity to innovate at the school where the study took place, in which we

could use the language in order to foster the “Good Rapport” campaign in students

and to make them reflect, as well as, if possible, change some of their attitudes.

Firstly, it is very important to mention the previous steps followed in order to

plan this innovative project. Some meetings were held in order to start creating the

innovation, the activities and, of course, writing the findings. In the first session, we

gathered for three hours and wrote the needs analysis. Also, following the teacher’s

guidelines we described briefly our population, taking into account age, sex, number

of students, the number of hours they take English classes, etc. In addition to that, the

“Good Rapport” campaign was included during the first meeting since the school was

fostering that campaign inside its PEI (Proyecto Educativo Institucional) which, in

English, means Institutional Education Project.

Subsequently, we received the help of the discipline coordinator, who served us as

a source of information related to our target population. She explained to us all the

current campaign, what the campaign’s target was, and what we would be expected to

get during and after the campaign: That information was given both verbally and

written to us in a teachers’ meeting. Additionally, it was essential for homeroom

teachers to send a written report of this survey to her, and to have a meeting with

other teachers to determine what the group needs to be addressed were. As a result, it


was set that it would be great to work on these students' social interactions not only

during the “homeroom sessions” but also through the English classes.

The innovation was evident due to the fact students showed awareness about

their acts and their personal interactions, and English was used as an excuse to foster

students’ reflection on the way they treat each other and linking that to the “Good

Rapport” campaign. English was used in most of the activities and most of the time;

Spanish was used only in situations in which instructions were not very clear or in

some discipline issues. Of course, some cognitive skills were developed during the

implementation phase, such as giving instructions in English to students; their

understanding of those instructions showed evidence of listening proficiency. During

the games or stages, students used English in order to participate or compete in each

of the activities; this was evidence of the development of speaking skills. As a result,

I have to say, with much emphasis, that the language improvement was not the goal

of this project; nevertheless, we did not dismiss the evident development of it. It is

that language was just a means to reach our innovation goal, to foster good rapport

among the students.

Going back to the participants’ attitudes through the different stages and

giving them a voice when reflecting upon various real-life social issues, which occur

inside their classroom and school, became necessary to see, interestingly, how these

children adopted a critical position in their context. It is worth mentioning that as a

teacher-researcher in charge of the academic subject, as well as the homeroom

teacher of participants, I realized that I was a slight oppressor to my students. I

realized it thanks to the development of this project for the reason that I could notice

students had interesting, innovative and feasible ideas about their daily life situations


and solutions to them; students showed commitment to their process when getting

involved and motivated positively more than just receiving one-dimensional feedback

in the absence of real dialogue.

It was outstanding to note how participants first got committed to the

proposed tasks and also their use of the foreign language inside the different

activities, taking into account that researchers mentioned it was not necessary to use

the FL all the time, unlike the classes observed and analyzed; one sees learners

achieve tasks with a proper and accurate motivation more than forcing them to fulfill

them.

As this project´s extents and findings, even on a small scale, were socialized

not only in the English Area meeting but also in the institutional magazine by 2016,

second semester, there, curriculum development was fostered, starting with the

English teacher lesson planning as well as by drawing attention towards the concept

of innovation.

As a conclusion, during all this process of fostering the “Good Rapport”

campaign, the use of English was crucial. It was used as a crosswise axis during all

stages, during the values fostering and also during the good rapport resulting from

students’ reflection. The use of English as a Foreign Language was the means to

reach my innovation; this innovation was fostering the “Good Rapport” campaign,

having as a consequence student’ reflections about their bad practices and that is my

contribution to this small-scale project.

Based on the prior assertions, some authors highlight the relevance of conflict

resolution and management in the classroom. Stevahn (2004) highlights the relevance

of integrating in the curriculum conflict resolution training that engages students in a


frequent use of integrative negotiation and peer mediation procedures to solve

different interaction conflicts. The author also points out that schools can become

spaces where intellectual searches and the resolution of disagreements combine to

improve classroom life and academic rigor. Educators need to accomplish programs

aimed at increasing academic achievement and developing interpersonal competence.

These programs can help students get better results in conflict resolution in real life.

Furthermore, social behavior is closely related to conflict; it is inherent to

social behavior. Thus, in all contexts it is necessary to possess special skills and

comprehend them, particularly in the educational context where they might emerge.

To support this, Castellanos et al. (2012) have argued that conflict can be noticed

differently by individuals, in conformity, “[a] conflict can be understood as a

struggle, war and post-war situation.” (p.12). Related to this fact, there is currently a

widespread awareness of the existence of school violence and conflicts of a different

sort that, in general, the government and especially the school cannot ignore.

Additionally, Cortés (2016) pointed out that a myriad of factors impact

conflict issues: the age of students, and sociological, cultural and educational

opportunities offered by the environment itself, are some of them; therefore, those

concepts are relevant to be recognized with the purpose of assertively dealing with

them in the classroom. Consequently, I consider it relevant to take into account those

factors with the purpose of inserting them in the EFL classroom.

Based on that I do agree with Gibbons (2010) who posits that conflict

education should strengthen a person’s capacity to create alternative solutions in

response to problems; consequently, I believe conflict education gives learners the


possibility to strengthen their negotiation capacities for conflicts and at the same time

their language production, ensuring their becoming agents of their life stories.

Research question and objectives

Based on the previous phenomenon explained, the question to lead my inquiry

deals with the identification of the participants' negotiation capacities when solving

conflicts, and the main goal of the study is to interpret their capacity to negotiate by

means of participants’ written life stories about intra and interpersonal conflicts faced

as shown in the table below:

Table 1. Research Question and Objectives

Rationale

Under the framework of the Discourse Studies within Educational Contexts of

my master’s research line of the M.A. in Applied Linguistics to the Teaching of English

as a Foreign Language, this study strives to unveil students’ negotiation agendas in the

management of their interaction conflicts in an EFL classroom of a Catholic school. It

is worth highlighting the importance of including the analysis of the social dimension

of language learning due to the fact that I consider this aspect influences Foreign

Research

question

What do eighth-graders’ written life stories unveil about their

capacity for conflict negotiation in a Peaceful classroom

environment?

The

research

objectives

To describe students’ negotiation capacities at the time intra and

interpersonal conflicts emerge and are faced.

To understand students’ autonomous and creative conflict resolution

capacity by the interpretation of their written life stories.


Language acquisition in the sense that a positive rapport is fundamental in the

classroom environment to foster a fruitful interaction for the sake of knowledge

construction among learners.

Lyle (2008) mentions that learning is seen as “a social process and knowledge

as a jointly constructed phenomenon” (p. 279); in that sense, this concept provides

relevance to this study because it mentions the social impact on learning, which is one

of the main aspects of the interest in the study.

Another important aspect to highlight is the learners’ perceptions towards the

resolution of their conflicts by means of short narratives to recount genuine intra and

interpersonal conflicts participants have faced with the objective to make them visible

to their peers and create a sense of empathy also; to provide them opportunities to

verbalize their introspections towards their conflicts. As a consequence learners

developed a sense of good rapport by sharing their experiences and realizing they faced

similar situations.

Hence, some scholars have discussed the importance of enhancing conflicts as

a positive opportunity to build a sense of better interaction among actors in the conflict;

for instance, Torrego (2005) points out that “conflict is inevitable among people, but it

does not mean that its natural consequence is violence ... it becomes a positive factor

enabling the evolution and transformation of relations towards a better understanding,

respect and even collaboration.” (p. 11)

Moreover this relationship has managed to take into account the actual

requirements inside the Colombian classrooms; those requirements propose to promote

situations that are related to the post-conflict situation in the country; therefore, I


pretended to observe the management of those conflicts inside my EFL classroom using

the language as a vehicle for viewpoints and introspections towards conflict situations.

The research question was addressed by a qualitative description of the

participants’ introspections and their posterior perceptions after the reflection fostered

by means of life stories produced by them and interviews, respectively.

As an innovative approach to conflicts resolution, I expected to make

participants and the setting of the study application aware of the relevance to include

interaction and social dimension in EFL language learning as a result of understanding

the role of the aforementioned features in that process by virtue of a holistic view of

language which has to be taken into account (Ellis, 1998).

As a conclusion for this section, Ellis’ study attempted to contribute to the social

dimension of language learning taking into account that it interferes in learning based

on the fact that the human being possesses holistic characteristics to be taken into

account at the time to acquire new knowledge or build it with others.


Chapter 2

Literature Review

In this chapter a theoretical discussion around firstly, some definitions of

conflict (Vinyamata, 1999; Rubin, Pruitt & Kim, 1994 cited in Chaux, 2012) and my

understanding to define the existing relation between conflict resolution (CR) and

negotiation is proposed under the socio critical perspective (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986 &

Lantolf, 2000a) with emphasis on a social and critical perspective based on fact. My

concern was about informants’ voices towards intra and interpersonal conflict as well

as the display of their negotiation capacities at the time of solving conflicts without a

mediator’s help, which is contrary to paradigms that assert those capacities must be

taught (Gibbons, 2010). In addition, there is a discussion of the tenets and

characteristics of the constructs of conflict resolution and negotiation in a peaceful

classroom environment (Chaux, 2016; Daza & Vega cited in Chaux, et. al., 2004);

Spector, 2007 & Vinyamata, 1999).

The chapter is organized as follows: in first place, some definitions of conflict

stated as part of daily life and closely related to human interaction at the time there is

a difference in interest between two parties (Vinyamata, 1999; Rubin, Pruitt & Kim,

1994 cited in Chaux, 2012); conflict resolution as a human capacity that involves a

process resulting from an interaction where people involved can communicate,

negotiate, understand and construct a reciprocal solution for both (Vinyamata, 1999),

as well as social interaction and CR in relation to peace (Chaux, 2016). The second

main construct is negotiation, which results from the conflict resolution process based

on capacities learners acquire by means of their social interaction in different

scenarios and at the time of facing conflicts based on the knowledge they acquired


from their peers, relatives and the advice of adults (Dewey, 1903 & Spector, 2007).

Taking into account the aforementioned tenets, I developed my

perspective throughout this chapter. As a consequence, this chapter provides a socio-

critical perspective towards the concepts of conflict resolution and negotiation as well

as their mutual relationship same as their relation to language learning as a mediator

in the Applied Linguistics (Pennycook, 2001) field in order to recognize the

importance of positive interaction to construct language learning.

The following image displays the relations found between the two main

constructs:

Conflict Definition

I consider conflict as a situation where two or more parties have different ideas,

ideologies, or interests; and those differences affect one of the aforementioned parties

Figure 1. Co-relations. Conflict resolution and Negotiation capacities as the two

main constructs. Source: own.

Conflict Definition

Peaceful Classroom

environment

NegotiationConflict Resolution

(CR)

Positive

interdependence

Cooperative

learning

environment

Integrative

negotiation Citizenship


having as a result a violent of unfair manner to solve it by searching for a selfish way

to finish with it, even though, conflicts can be managed and solved in a peaceful manner

to construct a distributive solution that benefits parties For Entelman, R (2012) the

conflict consists involved. The presence of conflict becomes inherent to interaction

owing the fact any human being is not the same as the others – even they are siblings

or relatives – therefore there always have been difference among ourselves and our

conservation instinct or fear to be defeated is revealed, having as a result a difficulty

for the other person or party. Vinyamata (1999) mentions conflict are the core and

expression of human relationships, same as they are the expression and represent the

fundament of relationships (p. 19), in addition he proposes to create systems where

they can be peacefully and reciprocally solved. I do agree with those stances due to

harmony in our relationships can lead us to have a positive social development as well

as I believe conflict is always going to exist to make us grow and fully develop as

human beings.

Additionally, Rubin, Pruitt y Kim (1994) cited in Chaux (2012) establish that

in any social group, conflicts are part of daily life. Also they can be understood as

situations where each party perceives or believes their interests are contradicting with

the other one of the other party. Similarly to the above ideas I assert conflicts become

part of our human development owing the fact all of us are unique and on the contrary

if we become equal life would be plane and boring.

At the time human face disputes the peaceful and positive manner to solve them

have become a must for all the societies with the seed of harmony and welfare lives for

everyone. For Entelman, R (2012) the conflict consists of an intentional dispute

between two beings or groups from the same species violently manifested to break the


other’s resistance by the use of violence which could result on the other’s annihilation

in the most extreme case, nevertheless the outcome of the management and solution

process is managed in peaceful manners as well. Those ideas become crucial to my

personal definition of conflict due to I consider the positive and peaceful management

of conflict can avoid annihilation of other’s ideas or perceptions without damaging

others and on the contrary using conflict as an excuse to overcome difficult situations

and produce a fruitful knowledge to the parties involved in it.

Moreover, in my view conflicts can be part of daily life based on the fact we

have interaction with others day by day, and it can be even more frequent in young

pupils due to their sensitivity and manner to socialize with their peers. Luna-Bernal, A.

C. A. & De Gante-Casas, A. (2017) stand that conflicts are part of the teenagers’ usual

interaction at school, and also those may have the potential to strengthen or damage

their relations in the school cohabitation. (p. 28); those situations that involve conflict

are present in different moments of daily life due to they are considered “inherent to

human relations” (Paris, 2009:30 as cited in Luna-Bernal, A. C. A. & De Gante-Casas,

A., 2017 ). I learn from those arguments conflicts are natural in our relations due to as

I said before they are part of our human nature owing to we are all different and seek

for our personal welfare.

Accordingly, I have noticed that some literature coincides that conflict involves

difference in thoughts and it also results in having winners and losers by resulting in

hostile competence which in my personal point of view should be solved in a reciprocal

manner where the two parties affected win and arise to a common benefit. Owens (1998

(cited in Ayas, T., Deniz, M., Kagan, M. & Kenç, F. M, 2010) asserts that descriptions

have two terms of management of conflict like: difference in thoughts and


disagreement in those. Discordant activities rise conflict and consequently imcopatible

goals. The victory will be in the end of one side at the cost of the other. The loser wants

to be the winner in a conflict and both sides avoid from losing. In general, conflict

which rises from motive of one side to carry out its hopes, may cause hostility by

turning into a situation which prevents the other side to reach its hopes.

Many other authors define conflict in different ways, nonetheless I decided to

take into account the ones above explain owing the fact they coincide to my personal

idea of what constitutes conflict or conflictive in my personal viewpoint, in the

subsequent section I will provide definitions of conflict resolution based on different

authors’ stances.

Conflict Resolution

I personally believe social behavior is closely related to conflict and its

resolution thus, in different contexts it is necessary to possess special skills

particularly in the educational context where they might be needed. Moreover, in

social interaction the presence of conflicts and their management leads to a

constructive or destructive solution after facing them, having, as a result, a positive or

negative influence on the parties involved. Castellanos, Galán, and Sánchez (2012)

have argued that conflict can be noticed differently by individuals, in conformity, “[a]

conflict can be understood as a struggle, war, and post-war situations. It can also be

interpreted as having different opinions, perspectives or personalities.” (p.12)

According to that, I noticed there is currently a widespread awareness of the existence

of school violence and conflicts of different sorts that, in general, the government and

especially the schools cannot ignore; therefore, to achieve a positive resolution to


conflicts learners may understand them as inherently related to interaction with others

in order to get as a result an integrative negotiation where each party wins in the end

(Fisher, 2011).

In addition, Gómez (2005) proposes a historical overview where

psychological and social evolution on citizenship education is displayed;

consequently, the author proposes to overview a social learning theory in which

knowledge is built by social interaction, identities, and power relationships; active

participation is necessary in order to achieve social construction of knowledge.

Moreover, it is a process that is developed in two human dimensions: inner and

social. Following this idea, I would say common interests influence same as social

knowledge construction. Other social characteristics such as race, age, gender,

religion, and others are mentioned because I consider human beings to be

multidimensional as well as society. For this reason, learning as a social practice is

understood as a process of concepts building resulting from social interactions.

In fact, it can be said that conflict resolution has become a kind of pseudo

discipline (Vinyamata, 1999) due to the fact that it interacts with other social and

humanistic disciplines with the aim of studying human relationships and their

conflicts solution; and at the same time, that is immersed inside several disciplines

related to the human being such as philosophy, psychology, anthropology or

sociology. Indeed, it is worthwhile to make clear a difference found between conflict

management and resolution. The understanding of these two terms results from the

revision of literature and theory on the construct, wherein conflict management is

understood as the manner in which conflicts are handled which maximizes

constructive conflict (Lindelow & Scott, 1989) and conflict resolution is considered a


pseudo discipline that takes its bases in multiple theories taking into account – as

mentioned before – Burton’s (1990) assertion that the conflict is presented most of

the time when human interaction takes place (as cited in Vinyamata, 2002);

consequently, the second term before explained was used to accomplish the purposes

of this research study.

In that sense, I understand conflict resolution as a human capacity that

involves a process resulting from an interactional procedure where the people

involved are able to communicate, negotiate, understand and construct a reciprocal

solution for both parts; moreover, the people who are able to develop it understand

that when it emerges, a conflict gives them an opportunity to correct mistakes and

build up new knowledge, therefore it can be said that the construction of new

knowledge promotes conflict resolution and is closely related to language learning

inasmuch as it is mandatory to establish communication to develop this ability.

As a result of the previous postures, the relevance of integrating in the

curriculum is highlighted to promote conflict resolution training that engages students

in the frequent use of integrative negotiation and peer mediation procedures to solve

different interaction conflicts (Stevahn, 2004). Therefore, schools become spaces

where intellectual searches and the resolution of disagreements combine to improve

classroom life and academic rigor. I consider educators need to accomplish programs

aimed at increasing academic achievement and the development of students’

interpersonal competence; these programs enhance them to obtain positive outcomes

in real-life conflict resolution, therefore, those programs give learners chances to face

their conflicts and problems creatively and autonomously in order to acquire a

knowledge construction that is meaningful and remarkable for them in the future.


In addition, several factors impact conflict issues such as the students’ ages,

sociological, cultural and educational opportunities offered by the environment itself

(Cortés, 2016); therefore, those concepts are relevant to be recognized with the

purpose of assertively dealing with them in the classroom; as a consequence, I

consider it relevant to take into account those factors with the purpose of inserting

them in the EFL classroom to understand the manner in which pupils solve conflicts

by themselves. Consequently, in the school scenario conflicts are also presented as a

result of human interaction and, in that sense, conflict management and resolution

should be correctly handled taking into account learners comprise an important part

of society in the future construction of an environment.

Accordingly, conflict education should strengthen a person’s capacity to

create alternative solutions in response to problems (Gibbons, 2010). Additionally,

conflict transformation should be considered due to the fact that conflict itself is

considered as the main cause of the absence of peace. The different transformations

to be taken into account could be conflict resolution and curriculum inside the EFL

classroom specifically taking into account the emphasis of the current study.

Likewise, Lederach (1994) stated that two attitudes are required in conflict

transformation in order to reach a positive outcome from the conflict itself, and they

are: positive orientation and willingness to engage in the solution of it. (As cited in

Höglund & Söderberg, 2010, p.372) Thus, what I have learned from this stance is that

it is necessary to take on a positive attitude concerning conflicts in order to solve

them positively.

Moreover, in the school scenario conflicts are presented as a result of human

interaction; in that sense, conflict management and resolution should be correctly


handled taking into account learners comprise an important part of society in the

future construction of a good country and world. In light of the aforementioned fact,

conflict resolution and education are key concepts to reach a sustainable desired

peace due to the fact that if learners become involved in the process they are aware of

the importance of keeping conflicts in positive lights and they would be able to

reproduce those behaviors in their families and micro-societies as friends and

classrooms.

Consequently, inside the classrooms the idea of special environments to foster

conflict management skills in learners is proposed and those are designated peaceful

classrooms. Daza & Vega (citen in Chaux, et al. 2004) define and describe peaceful

classrooms as follows: safe spaces to give students possibilities to fully develop, give

opinions and participate, therefore, their confidence strengthens due to the fact they

can freely express themselves and all the members recognize worth in diversity.

From this perspective, peaceful classrooms are perfect to foster positive

interaction among learners of a foreign language and they can construct their

knowledge in a positive manner. Inside the peaceful classroom, conflicts resolution is

taken as an excuse to demonstrate students their capability to negotiate and solve their

problems by means of communication, respect and empathy; they exist naturally in

their lives, thus, they can be peacefully and positively solved. In addition, effective

communication becomes necessary to reach a possible solution to several conflicts

and, also, emotions are fully comprehended in order to manage them constructively

by means of avoiding hurting others as a result of constant reflection about those

feelings experienced during a conflict.

In contrast, the Colombian government has worked in the promotion of


sustainable peace and, as a consequence, they have created a series of policies and

standards to foster citizenship in the classrooms to avoid future conflicts; on account

of that, the National Education Ministry (MEN by its initials in Spanish) created

some standards to follow in order to promote citizenship in our students. MEN (2004)

presented a pedagogical proposal to handle citizenship education in Colombian

contexts; it proposed reinforcement of citizenship competences in conjunction with

learners’ homes.

Therefore, the standards for these competencies establish concrete actions to be

applied at home, school and other places; nevertheless, there are no specific established

standards for learning English in Colombia (MEN, 2004). In my opinion, it is relevant

to take into account the inclusion of citizenship competences, conflict resolution and

negotiation capacities inside the English classroom for learners to holistically achieve

language learning while bearing in mind that language learning relies on interaction

and successful practice inside the classroom.

Consequently, I consider the citizenship competencies may be used as tools to

build a healthy coexistence and respect; those abilities should be fostered from

childhood to project that coexistence towards a construction of future reflections and

actions to learners’ specific contexts; in addition, a positive interaction is necessary to

construct knowledge towards language learning due to the fact that I believe by

interaction and practice language is improved.

Considering that proposal, “Compartir” foundation and “Compartir palabra

maestra” (2016) presented a conference by Enrique Chaux Torres about the role of

education in the post-conflict and peace process. Chaux describes a pedagogical

model to work with in classrooms and defines different characteristics to include in


peaceful classrooms; he highlights certain characteristics to work on conflict

resolution such as critical consciousness, “colombianidad”, diversity, coverage,

education on coexistence, citizenship competencies, sustainable development,

historical memory and reconciliation, ethics and pacific cohabitation. The last one is

described in detail owing to the fact it is worked in the classroom in order to avoid

conflicts and bullying. Furthermore, abilities to handle conflicts are presented as

follows: anger management, creative options’ generation, consequences’

consideration, decision making, and active listening.

The second issue described was bullying. Chaux posits that empathy

construction, assertiveness, and critical thinking become effective at the time of

preventing the issue; also, the fact is mentioned that it is more effective to prepare

pupils in their first years to get them used to handling their conflicts effectively and,

in addition, parents and society in general are crucial to contributing to that process.

I do agree with Chaux’ tenets because to foster a peaceful classroom

environment, the aforementioned abilities and conditions are necessary with the aim

to achieve negotiation and resolution skills in learners for improving the classroom

environment.

The next concept to be discussed, which is citizenship, is included in this

chapter owing to the fact that the existence of it helps to achieve the construction of

an integrative negotiation -this will be explained later- positive conflicts resolution

and positive interaction to construct knowledge as a team; as a result, Gómez (2005)

asserts that citizenship building faces a large number of challenges, barriers, and

limitations that have become one of the cores in current philosophy and political

science, and one of the most relevant interests in education; three barriers are


presented as follows: second and third-class citizens as a result of Nation-states,

citizenship construction has become economical, and finally some new social theories

which are still located in the marginalization such as feminism, post colonialism,

race, critical theory, and social movements.

Accordingly, I can say that citizenship development becomes fundamental for

the enhancement of a peaceful classroom environment which results in the learners’

development of negotiation and conflict resolution abilities necessary to face

situations that may hinder their language acquisition.

Additionally, Gómez (2005) affirms that in psychological theory stances

towards learning therefore are evident from behaviorism to Vygotsky. There the

author poses that citizenship learning is a process of meaning constructions resulting

from social interactions, interpretive contexts; transactions allow the individual to

develop a self-reference, empathy and community development.

To outline the aforementioned tenets about conflict resolution it can be said

that this pseudo discipline (Vinyamata, 1999) which is different from conflict

management - explained before – is given to different conflicts and not to the creative

and autonomous solution of them, which agrees with the arguments presented. It is

suitable to highlight that to achieve a positive conflicts resolution, the creation of a

healthy environment is necessary and that is why peaceful classrooms are taken into

account with the promotion of social citizenship competencies inside them in order to

foster positive interaction, creative solutions to possible conflicts and integrative

negotiation by the use of English as an excuse to reach that goal and promote

language learning differently from traditional grammar centered learning of the

foreign language.


Likewise, Gibbons (2010) validates the importance of conflict education by

citing that conflict education should strengthen a person’s capacity to create

alternative solutions in response to problems; thus, at the time of cooperatively

identifying problems and their solutions, children can develop skills to succeed in the

classroom and beyond (Harris & Hodges, 1995); consequently, one point to make

here is that learners who are immersed in peaceful classrooms and conflict resolution

environments will be able to face different conflictive and problematic situations

creatively by constructing their knowledge cooperatively and positively.

In response to the aforementioned stances in a study on conflict resolution

articulated to curriculum, Gibbons (2010) presents an example of conflict

management and curriculum in her article to show an integration of conflict

resolution integrated to the curriculum:

The curriculum and conflict resolution are encouraged by the Association for

Conflict Resolution to be related through a combination of learning experiences for

conflict resolution to subjects as well as the use of strategies like collaborative

problem solving and active listening to model conflict resolution techniques. Based

on the previous ideas, a study of this issue was found and a link between language

learning and citizenship is proposed by Serrano (2008). He argues that an existing

connection between learning and citizenship-related affairs is possible in the sense

that learning about social identity and cultural diversity gives us insights towards

other cultures and their worth (p. 6). It allows me to say that language learning is a

social process where cooperative learning and conflict resolution nurtures it to be

fully developed in a positive environment where learners co-construct their

knowledge using their cultural background.


Considering this connection, I think that the synergy between citizenship and

language learning can become a powerful tool to activate students’ curiosity about

local and global issues, especially as the content and processes of citizenship and

language acquisition share common characteristics from an educational point of view.

Negotiation in the EFL classroom

Leading to negotiation, which is the second main construct to be discussed in

the subsequent lines, consists of theories of John Dewey, Levin, Spector and Stevahn

with respect to learning and are going to be taken into account to support the

conceptualizations from the revised literature useful for the purposes of this research

study.

Taking into account the previous idea, I find it relevant to mention that

Dewey (1903) mentions that the environment -directly connected to negotiation

development- consists of those conditions that promote or hinder, stimulate or inhibit,

the living being’s characteristic activities (p. 16); a being connected to others cannot

perform his/her own activities without taking into account others’ ideas and feelings;

in that sense, it is important to add that the environment provides learners conditions

to promote or obstruct their learning process. Thus, it is imperative to foster a positive

environment where language learning, conflicts resolution and negotiation are

displayed.

In this light, I bring into play some authors where negotiation concept varies

according to different authors: Munduate and Martínez (1998) assert it is a conflict

resolution media when parties need to keep an exchange relationship, under new

undetermined bases or accepted conditions that are mutually agreed upon. In addition,


Pruitt (1986) highlights it is a process where two parties take a shared decision. They

look for new alternatives and a consensus via different agreements. Moreover, Morley

and Stephenson (1977) define it as an interactional process where two or more parties,

with options or agreements at hand, search for better options for them by the

development of actions that they decide upon together in order to benefit each other.

The main purpose of negotiation is to achieve a feasible and acceptable concession for

all parties.

Based on the above, negotiation refers to the interactional process where parties

involved in a conflictive situation agree on a fair solution or agreement by the exchange

of ideas and actions that benefit them in the sense they are able to reach a solution

where all of the parties involved or affected obtain a benefit that makes them satisfied.

Continuing with the theoretical discussion, negotiation can be found to be a

social construction by means of practice; therefore, there is a necessity to provide

opportunities to stakeholders regarding facing situations where negotiation is

necessary. According to Spector (2007), negotiation can be considered as a learned

skill resulting from the conflict resolution process learners can face during their daily

activities. In addition, Spector (2007) establishes that experience based on reflection

is suggested by the theory on experiential learning; taking into account that Dewey’s,

Lewin’s and cognitive psychologists’ tenets advocate useful learning for the analysis

of principles through experience, social environment interaction and a continuous

problem-solving process. (p. 2)

Moreover, based on the previous stances, environment, practice and

experience influence language learning, negotiation and conflict resolution in the

sense that learners are affected positively or negatively at the time of progressing due


to the fact that, as they are human beings, those aspects are crucial to increase or

decrease learning in general, based on the fact that we are social beings and depend

on the others to coexist.

In relation to the preceding argument, the authors Susskind & Coburn’s

(1999) application of learning is related to negotiation due to it being considered as

art and science, thus “teaching by doing” has become essential in negotiation courses

and, as a matter of fact, negotiation is not merely memorized but it is actually used.

(As cited in Spector 2007, p. 2)

Correspondingly, negotiation is considered as a process that is acquired by

means of practice; in addition, it can be related to specific learners’ abilities which are

not directly taught but, nevertheless, can be acquired by the practice of social

situations where/when it is necessary. This construct is directly related to the previous

one owing to the fact that conflict resolution is the result of a negotiation process of

the parties involved.

Furthermore, negotiation can be defined as a process where two or more

parties involved in a conflict look for strategies to satisfy own interests with the aim

to reach a mutual agreement and positive outcomes for all (principled negotiation).

Scholars like Roy Lewicki, Stephen Weiss, and David Lewin identified 44 published

models of negotiation; these were classified into three main categories: distributive,

integrative and other. Distributive models claim that the value must be split in two.

Integrative ones deal with a value system based on collaboration towards joint

problem-solving. Moreover, principled negotiation by Roger Fischer and William

Ury in 1981 comprises a framework proposed to negotiate effectively when there are

different interests with one peer, which encompasses attention towards interests and


opinions rather than the person itself.

I find the earlier arguments relevant to my study due to the fact that I

attempted to understand negotiation capacities in the conflicts faced by my

participants in order to unveil the capacities they used to solve them and determine if

they use them or not, all the while using English as an excuse to describe those

situations and the manner they solve them by identifying the category of negotiation

used.

Likewise, Dewey, Kolb, and Lewin describe six shared propositions about

negotiation learning: 1. Learning is best conceived as a process rather than an

outcome. 2. All learning is relearning. 3. For students to learn, they should move into

modes from reflection and action and feeling and action. 4. Learning includes the

integration of thinking, feeling, perceiving and behaving. 5. Learning is the process

proceeds with and in an environment. 6. Learning is the process for creating

knowledge. Similarly, Patton proposes a similar frame in negotiation (Rybacki,

2016). Following that line, from my perspective language learning is promoted by

situations in real contexts, thus, in a positive environment learners cooperate with

each other in the construction of their knowledge by having a good interaction,

rapport and interpersonal relationships for them to be able to acquire knowledge more

easily.

Taking into account skills developed to achieve an integrative negotiation –

where the two parties involved win in the resolution of a conflict – King and Stevahn

(2005) proposed a set of theoretical bases for evaluators in different studies to

manage the conflicts they faced when making decisions in their job; additionally, they


mentioned the importance of promoting a constructive way to solve conflicts by the

establishment of mutual goals, strategies to manage their disputes. They also

highlighted the importance of fostering a positive interdependence (Johnson and

Johnson, 1989) to obtain the best results.

In their article the authors described the two theoretical frameworks from

social psychology they considered relevant to introduce in order to carry out an

effective evaluation process; the first one is called the conflict strategies theory

(Johnson and Johnson, 2003) which describes five types of responses to conflicts:

Forcing - consists of achieving one party’s goals above the other ones - , withdrawing

- about giving up on one's’ goals and positive relations - , smoothing - related to

giving up one’s own goals to keep a positive relation with the other - , compromising

- giving each party a 50-50 gain in order to keep outcomes and relations moderately

important - and problem-solving - means a cooperative negotiation with the aim of

giving both parties the same outcomes as well as maintaining excellent relations in

order to have a harmonious environment. Additionally, the second theory the authors

mentioned in their article was the Constructive Conflict Resolution Theory (Deutsch,

1973) that posits the possibility to promote a common goal between the parties

involved in the conflict with promoting a positive interdependence and, as a result,

working cooperatively with the help of the necessary skills to develop an integrative

negotiation of conflicts (expressing cooperative intentions, mutually defining the

conflict, stating wants, expressing feelings, explaining underlying reasons/interests,

reversing perspectives to communicate understanding, generating multiple integrative

solutions that attend to all interests, reaching agreement on a mutual solution, and

processing the effectiveness of the problem-solving process); as a conclusion, the


authors suggest evaluators need to know those aforementioned tenets with the

purpose of solving conflicts in the best possible way to achieve a common goal.

I found the arguments described above relevant to my study due to the fact I

consider it pertinent to promote in pupils an environment where they feel respected,

listened to, where they cooperate to achieve common goals and where they develop

social skills that are necessary for their lives to solve their conflicts autonomously and

positively, for holding positive relations as well as language development with each

other’s cooperation. In addition, I do agree with the authors' display of theory

highlighting the importance of knowledge with the aim of solving conflicts

cooperatively to ensure parties involved gain a satisfactory solution for all.

The following lines describe some research found related to the tenets described

above that serve this study in order to give light to the discussion proposed in this

chapter. Some research on learning negotiation (Nandler, Thompson & Van Boven,

2003) where four common methods to learn negotiation where evaluated – didactic

learning, learning via information revelation, analogical learning, and observational

learning – indicated that learning based on observation and association of new

knowledge to previous experiences provides better results at the time of acquiring

negotiation skills; the observational and analogical learning correspondingly nurture

negotiation learning and development in the sense they provide learners opportunities

to solve conflicts they face during their daily lives by observing and adapting their past

experiences to new knowledge.

It allows me to say negotiation learning is possible to develop by observation,

experience and adaptation to situations faced, due to the fact that they provide people


tools with which to use their acquired skills in difficult situations they may face in the

future by the use of their lived experiences and life morals taken from the

aforementioned situations.

Across the mediation domain, theory and research have shown the necessity

to include mediation in the resolution of the conflicts having, as a result of

negotiation, skills development. For example, Cantrell-Schellenberg, Parks-Savage,

& Rehfuss (2007) carried out a longitudinal study that was held in the period between

1999 and 2000 that displays that rates of violence have increased, therefore,

aggressive interactions have taken place at schools that stifle academic development.

Moreover, they mentioned that other studies revealed methodologies related

to mediation training seemed to lack rigor and longitudinal outcomes (pg. 475). The

study was done with short groups which were analyzed in previous studies rather than

measuring schools’ outcomes longitudinally, and it was conducted by the use of three

questionnaires for participants (a sample of 15) in order to evaluate the program about

Peace Pals’ mediation held at school (elementary school in the Middle Atlantic

Region of the United States). The results displayed in the questionnaires were later

compared to the reports and minutes written by the mediators of the program.

As a result, the program showed good results in the population that

participated by displaying a positive impact after three years of implementation.

Additionally, Peace Pals began mastering the language necessary to solve different

conflicts in the post-measure stage. Also, the Peace Pal program prevented school

violence in the long-term period. Through the data analysis, it was concluded that the

Peace Pal program contributed to reducing school violence, suspensions, and negative


conflict management. As a matter of fact, the researchers assert that the program

permitted permeating and contributing to changing the school culture in the long run.

Thus, I believe mediation permits parties involved in different conflictive

situations to enhance the negotiation process by the progress of being conscious of

the importance of peace in relations to reach a positive solution for all actors affected

by those situations where possible conflicts emerge.

In the local context, Bohórquez, Gómez & Mosquera (2011) displayed one

study engaging a group of seventh-graders at a public school in Bogotá related to

negotiation skills used at the time pupils had to accomplish speaking tasks; it was also

described as a descriptive case study. In the results the authors mention four

consecutive steps that characterized the students’ negotiations: Establishing a

connection with a partner to work with, proposing practical alternatives, refusing

mates’ propositions, and making practical decisions. They also found that the

persistent process of negotiation permits students to improve their sociolinguistic

identity that helps agreements to emerge.

This makes me think that pupils can develop their negotiation skills by the

permanent use of chances to solve their conflicts autonomously, and it also permits

them to become better negotiators in different situations — no matter whether they

are conflictive or not — with the aim of improving their development in the language

same as in their relations to peers. I do agree that they need to face situations e.g. to

face their conflicts on their own to demonstrate their sense of autonomy.

The link between the main constructs in this study goes beyond the social

nature of conflicts and my concept of conflict resolution. Additionally, the theory and

research-based literature described above suggest negotiation skills are developed by


the resolution of intra and interpersonal conflicts faced day by day with the conscious

necessity to have positive relations with others in order to promote a positive

interdependence by the development of a common goal; as a result of that process,

the language learning environment becomes positive for the pupils due to its

promotion of a harmonious space to construct knowledge together and have a

peaceful classroom where everyone becomes respected, listened to and feels worthy

for their own and others’ learning process.


Chapter 3

Pedagogical Intervention

This chapter displays the intervention that was done to collect useful data for

the analysis of this study. It depicts adaptation of Barkhuizen’s (2008), Chaux, Lleras

and Velásquez’s (2004) proposals to work narratives as a means for students to

express their life stories based on their experiences about conflicts they had to face

individually, using English as a vehicle to display their experiences. The organization

of the chapter is firstly the description of the setting and participants of the

intervention; and secondly, the approach to language education that was used, visions

of language, teaching and learning, as well as the teaching and learning objectives,

the methodology used and the evaluation of the intervention itself.

This intervention was developed with the intention to create an environment

where the participants involved reconstructed their past conflicts experienced, and

one prospective exercise where they imagine themselves facing a conflict three years

ahead and described the manner in which they use their negotiation skills to solve it.

Consequently, the title to catch participants’ attention to the central topic was “The

Circle of Conflict Resolution”, in which there were reflective and introspective

activities to unveil their memories about conflicts faced with an autonomous

resolution by the management of negotiation skills they had developed.

Setting

The grade in which this intervention took place was eighth with 33 students in

it; they had English classes from Monday to Friday, seven hours per week where they

developed their communicative skills in English as a foreign language. I as a teacher


was concentrated on structural and behavioral traits in the students, therefore, most of

the classes were based on activities from the textbook and were constantly intervened

due to the fact that the emphasis on behavior had to be noticeable i.e. taking into

account the institutional policies.

The group was active, participative and tried to keep attentive most of the

time during the classes; as a result, this helped to promote a peaceful environment

(Daza & Vega cited in Chaux et al, 2004) where they can feel more motivated and

listened to by the production of their short stories and the interviews were done to

them. Moreover, they showed a good disposition towards the activities proposed for

their regular English classes. Due to institutional regulations, I had to focus my

teaching on metalinguistic aspects of the language which results in my constant

assessment of the learners’ accuracy and fluency, ignoring communicative goals in

regard to producing messages to express ideas and feelings; as a consequence, the

learners’ voices were silenced and ignored.

Moreover, interaction in my EFL classroom became neglected with the excuse

that there was little or no time to help students to learn in a harmonious environment

rather than using L2 as an excuse to acknowledge learners as agents of their own

learning processes and as citizens who can contribute to the development of society.

Teaching Approach

The affective-humanistic approach emphasizes the social climate in the

classroom and the development of positive relationships between the teacher, the

learners and among the learners themselves. It argues that learning a language is a

social and personal process and that this has to be taken into account in the methods


and materials used (Celce-Murcia, 2002). Some key characteristics I took into

account about this approach are based on respect for individuals, meaningful

communication, positive class atmosphere, peer support, and self-realization, bearing

in mind the students’ role inside the classroom.

I used some macro-strategies proposed by Kumaravadivelu (2003) stated in the

frame of the post-methods era, taking into account the objectives of this intervention;

in this way I selected the following principles:

Facilitate negotiated interaction. Learners should be active in their own learning

process by starting classroom interaction and not merely responding to the teacher’s

prompts and instructions.

Contextualize linguistic input. Meaningful discourse-based activities are used for

students to face real and prospective conflictive situations so that they can develop their

language skills.

Ensure social relevance. Students were willing to acknowledge that language learning

implies social, political, economic, and educational dimensions that shape the

motivation to learn the L2, determine the uses to which the L2 will be put, and define

the skills and proficiency level needed in the L2.

This intervention promoted a peaceful classroom environment – defined as an

academic space where participants feel respected, listened to and valued due to each

one being conscious about the importance of a harmonious environment (Daza &

Vega cited in Chaux et all, 2004) – in order to make participants manifest their

conflicts and express themselves towards the outcomes of the process of solving them

autonomously with the purpose of making them expressed freely, be aware of their


negotiation capacities and use English as a vehicle to improve their production skills

in a different manner from the ones already managed inside the regular classes, owing

to the fact they are expressing ideas about situations that they have actually faced and

solved on their own; therefore the production of their short stories became significant

for them. In addition, Chaux’ proposal is aimed for different subjects than English

thus, my intention was to integrate this to my regular classes raising awareness of the

community towards the importance of social interaction in the development of

linguistic skills of the foreign language.

Vision of Language

As for the vision of language on which this teaching approach rests, it is

understood as an instrument to express ideas, feelings, beliefs and so on about world

visions in people, which are learned and co-constructed with the help of interaction

with others and their differences. (Dewey, 2004)

Consequently, it can be asserted that language is a vehicle for people to

interpret, learn and rewrite their personal worlds. (Freire & Macedo, 1987 and

Pennycook, 2001)

Vision of Teaching

In sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986 & Lantolf, 2000), instruction

informed by it also pays attention to the discourse, norms, and practices associated

with particular discourse and practice communities; therefore, the pedagogical

intervention developed for this study was based on the aforementioned principle.

In addition, the classroom is a space where everybody must be respected,


listened to, considered and supported to have a positive learning environment where

everyone contributes to the others’ processes by cooperating and maintaining a

peaceful environment (Chaux, Lleras & Velásquez, 2004). This conception adapted

from Chaux, Lleras &Velásquez assertions serve to support my viewpoint towards

teaching owing to the fact that I consider the teacher must promote this environment

in order to have a successful learning environment, taking into account that language

learning requires a positive rapport for increasing learners’ abilities.

Furthermore, the teacher is a facilitator in the construction of knowledge

rather than the ultimate source of it; moreover, he or she should be proficient in the

native and target language due to the translation that should be used in the initial

stages of the intervention in order to establish situations for students to develop

negotiation and positive interaction skills.

Vision of Learning

The accurate management of conflicts (Vinyamata, 1999) in class is a means

for the socio-constructivist process of English learning. As a consequence, I consider

it extremely necessary in EFL teaching to promote not only language learning and

improvement, but also to include cultural, social and personal issues that need to be

handled in a spontaneous, natural and interactive way. Thus, this view of learning

allows teachers to create a space for solving conflicts among students through the use

of English as a means to promote both foreign language use and social interaction.

Additionally, focusing on children's literacy practices, Quintero (2008) argues

that critical pedagogy and critical literacy let all the students with different

background and social contexts tell their own stories through their games, which can


be within a narrative, artistic or literary contexts that are able to provide data about

their life expectations and the way they see the world. Critical literacy is defined as

the result of the process of the language construction and its critical usage, just as

expression, interpretation, and transformation are meant for not only a specific

individual but for everyone around it. Conducting class with these ideas gives girls

and boys the opportunity to express their own opinions and visions of the world.

Consequently, I learned critical literacy practices shaped by narratives

production provide learners the chance to display their personal stories to express

their ideas towards the world and give them voice towards their personal experiences

to recall the conflicts they overcame.

The Pedagogical Intervention as a tool for innovation

This intervention provided me with chances to give voice to my students by

means of the descriptions of their capacities to solve conflicts autonomously and

promote peaceful environments where everyone felt worthy, listened to and respected

(Chaux, Lleras & Velásquez, 2004). Moreover, narratives development and

adaptation provided us the chance to adapt methods applied and tested before

(Bamberg, 2006; Barkhuizen, 2008; Lavob, 1988; Quevedo, 2008 & Quintero, 2016)

[described in Chapter 3-Research design] in order to verbalize capacities of

negotiation in the solution of conflicts that participants faced autonomously, having,

as a result, the demonstration of the learners’ capabilities to self-develop many

processes I considered they could not handle on their own.

Also, this process helped me by making me reflect on my practices inside the

classroom. The implementation of this intervention permitted me and my participants


to realize the different options to approach language learning including pupils in their

own process. As a consequence of the aforementioned ideas, the following table

displays the objectives proposed for this intervention

Table 2. Learning objectives and Teaching objectives.

Methodology

The methodology used was adapted from stances proposed by Canagarajah

(2004), Barkhuizen (2008) and Chaux, Lleras and Velásquez (2004) due to the fact

that in their documents they mention useful characteristics for the purposes of thesis

such as the use of narratives as a manner of shaping personal stories and the use of

strategies in Citizenship Competences methods to adapt to my EFL classroom,

bearing in mind, the purpose was to interpret introspections emerged from

participants’ reflection, and recollections of their previous conflicts faced.

Also, short stories about conflictive situations that other people experienced

were displayed to the participants in order to make them reflect upon the natural

presence of conflicts in human interaction, as well as to ask them to propose possible

Learning

Objectives

Teaching

Objectives

● To produce short stories about conflicts faced.

● To improve the productive skills by the use of retrospections,

interpretations, and perspectives of faced conflicts.

● To recall previous conflicts faced and describe their solutions to them.

● To improve the production of written texts about participants’ personal

experiences.


solutions to solve the aforementioned situations without another person’s

intervention; all this, to sensitize them towards the purpose of the intervention.

Afterward, in the subsequent sessions, they were asked to remember and write

short stories retelling conflicts in their far, near past, present and a prospection of

three years ahead where they describe possible conflicts they think they would face as

well as including the conflicts’ outcomes with the purpose of identifying the

existence of negotiation capacities.

This methodology used during the intervention was developed with the

intention to foster good rapport among teacher and students involved, making them

conscious about the importance of a positive interaction in the learning of English as

a foreign language keeping in mind that I consider language learning as a co-

constructed process of interaction with others; therefore, it is a social construction

that is framed under the basis of respect and empathy.

As a result, the intervention was planned to facilitate the data collection

process by the development of activities that motivated participants to reveal their

negotiation capacities at the time of facing past problems same as developing a

prospective exercise three years ahead, and finally their own meaning of situations

they considered conflictive.

Moreover, the contents of the intervention were based on possible conflicts

the population has faced before in order to make them reflect upon the relevance of

producing creative solutions for them to have a positive rapport for enabling a good

learning environment where they can negotiate and solve their conflicts

autonomously and creatively.


Materials used were some PowerPoint presentations [see Appendix C] with

the instructions and questions for the participants so that they produced their short

stories about their conflicts via the presentation of guidelines to write them, to focus

their attention on specific details at the moment they faced their conflicts. It is

important to highlight that I reminded my participants the guidelines in all the

sessions for them to keep in mind the structure they needed to use in their stories –

beginning, conflict, and result –.

Short life stories [See appendix D] produced by learners were a tool used with

the purpose of uncovering their introspections towards conflicts faced and their

personal solution for them and, in that sense, the main purpose of the pedagogical

intervention was to give learners the opportunity to express themselves about

situations that involve their motivation towards their life and personal development.

The criteria I used to evaluate the intervention was the reading of the stories,

refinement of the instructions to my students after each section in order to obtain

richer data, a socialization session with my participants to know the level of

motivation they had to develop in the stories and the elaboration of a matrix to

analyze data gathered during the writing and interview sessions.

This intervention permitted incorporating a peaceful environment inside an

EFL class that was based on merely functional aspects of the language and allowed

participants to express their ideas and raise their voices in a different manner of

production where they could represent and give sense to their conflictive situations as

well as, displaying negotiation capacities they were able to develop autonomously. In

the next table, the timetable followed for the intervention is displayed.


Table 3. The timetable of the Pedagogical Intervention.

Lesson

Pedagogical

objective

Materials/Length Activities

1

To provide solutions

to the situations

displayed without

other intervention.

To do a preliminary

writing exercise about

a conflict faced and

the solution to it.

PowerPoint

presentation,

colored papers (90

mins)

Project presentation,

PowerPoint

presentation with

situations in different

contexts, discussion

of the possible

solutions and writing

of their short stories.

2 To recall conflicts in

the far past (preschool

and primary).

Colored papers (90

mins.)

Participants were

asked to remember

that age and conflicts

with their solution

they have

experienced.

Finally, the teacher

asked them to write a

short story

reconstructing one

conflict they had had

in their far past.

3

To recall conflicts in

the near past (last

year).

Colored papers (90

mins)

The teacher made

them write

experiences of

conflicts they lived

last year with the

complete description

of the situation and

their reactions to it.

4. To recall conflicts in

the present (this year).

Colored papers.

(90mins)

The teacher asked

students to write

stories about their

present conflicts as

well as their reactions

towards them.


5

To develop a

projection three years

ahead and propose

possible conflictive

situations faced and

reactions towards

them.

Last stories and

colored papers (90

minutes)

Reflection on

previous exercises

and enhancement

towards the near

future (3 years ahead)

in order to apply

reflections developed

and to display

reactions to possible

conflicts participants

would face at that

time.

6

To expand on ideas

displayed in last year's

stories by means of a

semi-structured

interview.

Audio-recorder and

stories.

Students answer the

questions in the

interviews about their

stories.


Chapter 4

Research Design

This chapter aims to describe the methodologies and procedures applied in the

research design to study eighth-graders’ capacities for conflict negotiation – the

process involved in conflicts resolution – and resolution capacities at a private school

in Bogotá. This study unveiled those students’ capacities at the time of facing their

conflicts autonomously and creatively. This takes place in the frame of the students'

creation of short life stories.

This chapter is organized using the following framework: first, the type of

study is described by mentioning the study paradigm, approach, and method. Second,

participants and settings are described. Third, an explanation of instruments and

procedures with the description of their purpose, type of data and the unit of analysis

in the data and finally, some concluding ideas are displayed in relation to insights

proposed in this chapter.

Based on the aforementioned ideas the research question to be answered in

this study is: What do eighth-graders’ written life stories unveil about their capacity

for conflict negotiation in a Peaceful Classroom environment? Consequently, to

obtain an answer for it, the objectives proposed are: to understand students’

autonomous and creative conflict resolution capacity via the interpretation of their

written life stories and to describe students’ negotiation capacities at the time

conflicts emerge and are faced.


Type of study

As mentioned before, this study was framed under the qualitative paradigm

(Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). Due to the fact that a social phenomenon made sense to

the participants – their conflict resolution capacities – they were also expected to

actively participate in the interpretation process of their own stories.

Under the qualitative research umbrella, the approach of this study was the

interpretive one, which serves the purpose of obtaining an insider perspective in order

to describe and interpret students’ retrospections, introspections, and perspectives.

This vision leads me to understand EFL learners' experiences as precisely as possible

(Creswell, 2013).

The research approach applied was Narrative Inquiry by Lavob (1988), who

posits that narratives are a method where different clauses in a sequence of events

reconstruct past significant experiences that actually happened and the short stories

analysis model proposed by Bamberg (2006) that was used based on the fact that this

study began and ended with the participants’ insights produced in their short stories

about faced conflicts that constituted their narratives towards that phenomenon;

retrospections, introspections, and perspectives were co-interpreted with me. The

students’ life stories helped me to understand their personal experiences in terms of

faced conflicts autonomously and creatively. Furthermore, the model of short stories

analysis (Bamberg, 2006) was adapted to the current study by the definition and

description of the setting, characters, plot, theme, style, plot, narrator and his/her

point of view, climax, and structure.


Setting

The institution where this project was carried out is a Catholic private school

located in the northern part of Bogota, Colombia, where students are from 4th socio-

economic background. It has a student body of about 2500. The school offers

students’ education in three different sections: preschool, elementary and secondary

school.

Participants

I worked with a group of 70 eighth-graders (whose average age was 13-14

years old, distributed in 60% males vs. 40% males aproximately) for the sake of their

tendency to participate and be active during the EFL classes; nevertheless, they

tended to be disruptive at the time of socializing their ideas towards different topics

and it was observed that some of them were rude to each other at the time they faced

differences in ideas and at the moment of working on teams they faced difficulties

with some peers and asked for help to solve those situations. As a matter of fact, this

setting served the purpose of this study in view of the piloting that was developed.

The learners manifested different autonomous and creative ways to solve past

conflicts they had faced; furthermore, they expressed they felt listened to at the time

this activity was developed.

Based on the research problem and question, what characterizes the participants

in my study is that all the students (informants) are involved in the pedagogical

intervention due to the fact that they are attending regular classes at the school.

The profile created for the current study constitutes a group of learners who

face personal conflicts and depend solely on adults’ intervention to solve them; also,


they tended to solve their conflicts in aggressive ways. Based on that, this is a

convenience/ typical sample (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007)1 due to the fact that

informants were chosen according to the data they provided in their narratives and

their disposition to participate in the study, as well as to provide answers during the

interviews and also, this was a study where the I worked as the researcher in my

English classes.

Consequently, the population fits the research theme due to the research

interest being based on conflict resolution capacities emergent from the participants

of the study; in addition, via the needs analysis the pupils showed they presented

some difficulties at the time of handling a positive rapport inside the EFL classes:

they interrupted each other in class discussions, asked for help for solving

problematic situations with their classmates and showed little disposition to work

with all their classmates in teamwork activities, thus, I found it useful to introduce

peaceful classroom practices - beginning with the practice of respect for each other -

for them to feel understood, listened to and respected; furthermore, they manifested

freely their past conflict experiences and the outcomes of them using the EFL as a

vehicle to promote healthy social practices inside the classroom.

For this reason, the setting and participants fit the study owing to the fact that

the school had a great number of students who constantly depended on teachers’

directions to act and develop different activities due to the policies in the community;

rules book were mainly coercive rather than preventive and, as a consequence, they

were not always adhered to or understood. To that end, the intention was to give the

1 Cohen, Manion, & Morrison (2007) in Cárdenas (2018) define it as an “[...] accidental or opportunity

sampling – [which] involves choosing the nearest individuals to serve as respondents [...]” to select the

participants because they are the nearest individuals to attend as respondents available and accessible

at the time (p.113).


participants the opportunity to express their ideas freely and realize they were able to

solve their conflicts and problems by the use of their previous knowledge, having the

EFL classroom as a space not only to serve that purpose but also to practice their

language with activities closer to their personal interests.

Role of the Researcher

The act of making sense of my participants’ voices towards their encountered

conflicts and the proper way to solve them constituted a big challenge for me as a

teacher as well due to the fact that I noticed it was necessary to let my students freely

express themselves and unlearn the practices I was developing to manage and control

their learning process. I could realize pupils always have ideas to share and they have

creative alternatives to face conflictive situations. In addition, I noticed my

intervention was not always necessary. I could have the chance to give them voice to

display their realities and particular worlds by means of their written life stories

(Quevedo, 2008); similarly, we had the opportunity to value and introduce learning

by the exploration of students’ immediate world from meaningful experiences

(Quintero, 2003).

Ethical issues

With the aim to respect ethical issues that emerged at the time of managing

participants’ data, consent forms [see Appendix A - Consent Form Model] were

submitted to school and participants’ parents at the beginning of the project

application for ethical considerations. Likewise, participants were able to choose

nicknames to sign their stories gathered for this thesis in order to protect the setting


and their identities, even though some of the participants decided to use their real

names. (Creswell, 2014)

Data Collection Instruments and Procedures

For the data analysis, the procedures followed to collect data from participants

with their reflections upon the actions done after facing conflict are going to be

slightly described:

Students written life stories:

To collect participants’ short life stories, close attention was paid to the unit of

analysis, which was the participants’ capacity for conflict negotiation. With this

instrument their retrospections, introspections, and perspectives at the time of facing

and solving conflicts by themselves were collected, then based on the recount of lived

experiences that participants described, they were asked to submit a handwritten story

every week and they were motivated to write freely based on their age in four

different sessions.

Interviews:

These were done to validate insights gathered in the narratives with the help of

participants with punctual aspects that emerged during the research, in order to

analyze participants’ perceptions towards their narrations and to gather further ideas

they could not display in their short stories; moreover, the population’s perceptions

about outcomes from the introspections analysis.

The students’ reflective practice was implemented in each session so that the

intervention becomes varied and at the same time data management becomes


systematized for the analysis of them to come up with fruitful findings and

conclusions at the end of the research process.

Concerning the data management, flexibility, tolerance, responsibility, order,

and consistency were used as a source to read and re-read the participants’ extracts

and scripts of interviews based on the Narrative inquiry approach [displayed in the

data analysis chapter], which was adapted with the purpose of co-interpreting my

participants’ voices towards the conflicts they faced.


Chapter 5

Data analysis

The following chapter describes the process of data collection and analysis.

The main source of data was participants’ written short life stories (narratives) where

they made sense of their conflicts and their capacities for negotiation at the time of

facing them; in addition, the validation of my interpretation from the students’ written

short life stories was developed through recorded interviews with the authors

previously selected with the purpose of answering the research question: What do

eighth-graders’ written life stories unveil about their capacity for conflict negotiation

in a peaceful classroom environment? Moreover, there was the need to aim at the

following objectives proposed: 1. to describe students’ negotiation capacity at the

time intra and interpersonal conflicts emerge and are faced; 2. to understand

students’ autonomous and creative conflict resolution capacity through the

interpretation of their written life stories.

Additionally, this chapter explains the framework used in the process of

analyzing data as well as the process followed to find patterns and categories in the

study. This chapter comprises a brief explanation of the process used to give

credibility, robustness to the data – validation procedure –, and subsequently, the

definition of the categories that emerged displaying their explanation and

exemplification is presented showing the relevant aspects of each category to provide

a discussion in the analysis.


Procedures of data collection

The process of data collection was handled by the promotion of a peaceful

classroom environment where at the beginning of the school year, rules were

negotiated with students to make them aware of the importance of negotiating general

story traits in order to have a positive environment; after that, a general discussion

based on some examples of conflictive situations was held to show the students

moments where conflicts emerged through a general discussion with them in order to

understand what constitutes a conflict for them and the ones they considered as big or

small. After that I presented them the small story framework - contextualization,

conflict and solution - for the purpose of establishing a format to follow at the time

they write their stories related to conflictive situations they faced in two moments

from their past- far and near-, their present, and a final exercise projecting themselves

in three years from that moment, facing a possible situation they consider they could

face with three possible results in order to promote a sense of accountability of

consequences and perspective based on their situations faced.

Subsequently, the students who provided the richest data were interviewed in

a face to face semi-structured interview about the stories they presented to validate

insights I have obtained from their stories by the shape of a conversation in order to

co-interpret the preliminary themes that emerged in the analysis and make

clarifications about the ideas proposed by them.

As a result, interpretation and clarifications of the narratives from that

interpretation resulted in participants’ capacities for negotiation at the time of facing

different conflicts as well as their voices towards their insights related to the manner


in which they make sense of those conflictive situations. These are going to be

displayed and described in detail in the subsequent lines [see findings below].

Data management

In the following section, I will present the manner the data from my

informants were gathered and managed, displaying the processes and steps followed

in order to find themes, patterns, and posterior categories.

Firstly, the written life stories collected from the participants were read and

underlined with different colors to differentiate aspects of the contextualization such

as characters, places, time, authors’ perceptions and feelings, as well as the conflict

and solution; based on that, the ones with the richest in data were selected to help to

obtain an answer to the research question and objectives.

Secondly, relevant topics related to my interpretation of the stories were

organized to be included in an interview protocol [see Appendix No.2] previously

piloted with my advisor and one co-worker and shown to the informants beforehand

for them to have enough time to prepare their answers; and at the same time they

received their stories back to remind them of the ideas written in their stories; this

with the purpose of validating my interpretation with the informants taking into

account the fact that their voices are the main source with which to analyze data.

Finally, stories were read again with the aim of identifying themes, patterns

and categories that emerged in the shape of a matrix created to triangulate

information, based on capacities mentioned by Chaux (2016) to solve conflicts

peacefully at the moment of facing conflicts by themselves, like anger management,

creative options’ generation, consideration of consequences, perspective taking, and


active listening; additionally, the theory proposed in the chapter called Literature

review and the data itself provided a rich source with which to name the themes and

further categories.

With the purpose of analyzing my data, I consider it relevant to mention that

this process requires an insider’s perspective in order to interpret and analyze the

informants’ retrospections, introspections, and perspectives towards their conflictive

situations, giving them the opportunity to express their ideas freely for making sense

of their situations as well as displaying their capacities to solve them autonomously

and creatively. Based on the aforementioned fact, the social phenomenon has become

sensible due to the informants’ insights; they also provided cooperation in the data

interpretation through the outcome of their interviews. (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994)

Moreover, under the qualitative research umbrella, the approach of this study

is the interpretive one, which serves the purpose of obtaining an insider perspective in

order to describe and interpret students’ retrospections, introspections, and

perspectives. This vision will lead me to understand EFL learners’ experiences as

precisely as possible (Creswell, 2013).

Data analysis framework

The framework used to analyze and extract rich data was the Narrative inquiry

that provided me sources to understand my informants’ voices and also gave them the

chance to develop their written and spoken abilities in the language by means of their

written life stories and their interviews; the aforementioned framework is going to be

defined and explained in the following section.


The research approach applied was Narrative Inquiry defined by different

scholars as follows: Quevedo (2008) highlights that by letting participants

problematize their own reality from a critical perspective. This can be possible with

the use of narratives as a tool to empower their voices; consequently, via the data

collection and analysis, process writing was promoted as a means of social practice

(Lerner, 2001). Furthermore, some other scholars provided me insights related to the

narrative inquiry definition and stages to follow in my analysis: firstly, Lavob (1988)

posits that narratives are a method where different clauses in a sequence of events are

used to reconstruct past significant experiences that actually happened; secondly,

McEwan & Egan (1995) defined them as feelings, thoughts, and intentions which

make human beings aware of their social behavior by the use of the instruments that

ensure the purpose of exploration. In addition, Quintero (2016) posits that narratives

promote knowledge and exploration of the students’ immediate world from their

meaningful experiences and value the ones that introduce learning.

Consequently, my intention in the study was to make use of one of the

literacy practices -written- as an excuse to promote writing as a process for social

empowerment where informants express their ideas towards their lived experiences

and become aware of the importance of conflict resolution and negotiation capacities

through the retrospective exercise developed in the data collection stage; all of this

with the intention to understand the way they make sense of conflicts and their

capacities to negotiate.

Consequently, I consider it to be pertinent to propose writing in the academic

field as a means of exploration of students’ voices, realities and particular worlds

(Quevedo, 2008); it means through the process I let students express themselves and


re-construct significant experiences of their conflictive situations from their life

stories.

Our ideas are expressed in our own words at the time we narrate;

additionally, the construction of knowledge and the learning process are operated

actively when the narrative ability is used to indicate our consciousness towards

different topics. Therefore, feelings, thoughts, and intentions are permitted at the time

humans narrate for them to become aware of their social behaviors. (McEwan &

Egan, 1995)

The short stories analysis model proposed by Bamberg (2006) was used for

obtaining the definition and description of the setting, characters, plot, theme, style,

climax, structure, narrator and his/her point of view, based on the fact that this study

begins and ends in the participants’ voices that were presented by means of their short

stories about conflicts faced which construct their narratives towards that

phenomenon. Retrospections, introspections, and perspectives were co-interpreted

with my informants’ help through their interviews; therefore, the students’ life stories

were intended to help to understand their personal experiences when their conflicts

are autonomously and creatively faced.

Additionally, the steps adapted in the analysis itself were based on Baker’s

(2011) tenets, as follows:


Figure 2. Definition of categories. This figure presents the steps followed to define the

categories described. Highlighting deals with discrimination of important details found

in the written life stories.


Chapter 6

Findings

In the following illustration the emergent category and subcategories are

displayed: one of the characteristics to work on conflict

Figure 3. Categories and their relation.

The categories: Sense of autonomy to face conflicts, conciliation to reach

reciprocal benefits and Self-reference to understand oneself and the others, all aimed

to answer the question and pointed to the achievement of the objectives proposed

based on the fact that conflict resolution needs to be fostered in the school scenario by

the enhancement of a person’s capacity to create alternative solutions in response to

the problems (Gibbons, 2010); in this study, particularly, the aforementioned

enhancement was promoted by the writing of the participants’ written life stories.


Main category: Sense of autonomy to face conflicts

This main category emerged during the elaboration of the data analysis

chapter, after defining and describing sub-categories that emerged as well as the

development of the chapter itself due to information extracted from the data analysis

matrix. It could be noticed that at the time participants narrated their stories about

conflicts they faced they had the chance to develop a self-evaluation with the purpose

of negotiating alternatives to solve them.

This category is defined as the process that participants displayed when they

faced conflictive situations [which were defined for them in their narratives and

interviews] where they themselves reflected on their reactions towards situations they

considered conflictive and, as a result, which permitted them to propose alternatives

to overcome them as positively as possible.

After doing validation of my interpretation via interviews and via theory in

my literature review and analysis of the data in the informants’ written life stories and

interviews, it could be noticed they tended to first develop an individual and later a

team process in order to overcome situations they considered conflictive.

Conflicts are presented as a result of human interaction (Burton, J. 1990 in

Vinyamata, E. 2002), therefore, human beings are called to overcome situations they

consider conflictive in order to have a harmonious development in all stances in this

particular case in their learning process and language construction.

Consequently, as my main concern was to promote peaceful classrooms, a

safe language learning environment and construction in the pedagogical intervention

of this study informants provided the main source of analysis using their own

retrospections and perspectives with the purpose of providing their own meaning to


situations they consider conflictive and manifested the manner they handled them on

their own without any adults’ help. Owing to the fact I was concerned about the

manner in which my students tended to manage their conflicts, I realized, as a result

of that process, that they possess abilities of negotiation to handle their conflictive

situations that do not need adults’ intervention.

A long time ago, when I was 5 years, I didn’t love my mum too much

because I supposed the school I was now was her idea... On vacation that year

we went to San Andrés, we both “entered” to the sea, and we began sinking

towards the deep and we took each other’s hands and jumped without

realizing we were very deep in the sea because the tide lead us we tried to go

back to the shore but it was not possible, we made distress signals and the

lifeguard rescued us and we were ok, after that I understood how important

she is for me, how fundamental she is for my life and how hard could it

be for me to lose her. Afterwards, I asked her for forgiveness and we

became closer to each other. Extract No. 1. Valentina Cerón. Story No. 1

(translated from Spanish)

This extract taught me about the ability my informants showed to recognize

their mistakes and act empathetically as well as repairing them the best way for both

parties of the conflicts. We can notice that after a dangerous situation the informant

reflected upon her/his reaction to the conflict; for this reason, I can say it is very

satisfying for me to acknowledge how this student could develop great abilities to be

successful in her life at the time she face conflicts by herself and in this case to be

humble enough to apologize in order to have better relationships with others.

Moreover, the extract reflects how changes in attitude result as regards

Conflict transformation: those changes need both a 'positive orientation towards

conflict' and 'a willingness to engage with the purpose to produce constructive change

and growth' (Lederach (the late 1980s) posted in Höglund, K; Söderberg Kovacs, M.

(April 2010: 367-390).

Additionally, in the previous extract one ability that informants illustrated


during the study was apologizing, which is understood as the ability the students

have to ask for forgiveness at the time they realize they committed a mistake that

needs to be repaired by them because of their own actions. It is crucial to highlight

they tend to apologize as a way to solve their conflicts which were contrary to my

personal beliefs in that regard.

Therefore, I as an adult normally consider teenagers try to ignore the fact they

commit mistakes and that they are able and humble to apologize; nonetheless, it could

be noticed my informants develop the aforementioned ability with the aim of solving

their conflictive situations as positively as they can.

In addition, the following extract illustrates another manner one of the

informants organized his stories; in his words he used what he calls in Spanish “Prosa

Melodramática” (melodramatic prose) which is a different manner to tell his life

stories by presenting his experiences in the third person. Using that prose to express

his ideas about situations that he considers conflictive, he manifested he could keep

distant from the situations that affect his social relationships and personal

development.

“the past is a force that torture who wants to forgot it, he pursues us

eternaly, but in that case; what we have to do? if we want to forgot it or if we

want to close him, we're going to suffer, but is neccesary suffer; beacuse

after the storm it comes the calm. After 14 years living as a beggar, asking

for that need, deserved and correspond for me. In the most unexpected

moment, it dissapear, that help get diffuse in the air, like if anything bad it

will happen in consequence. But in theory humanity has designed ways to

get a solution in this cases”. Extract No.2. Reo Kamirawa. Story No. 3

He manifested his sense of autonomy - which is described as the human

ability to overcome difficult situations (Luthar, S. S., Cicchetti, D., & Becker, B.

(2000)- towards the reflection he generated after facing his parents’ divorce, dealing


with the idea his parents were not perfect - as every kid believes. I infer from this

story that despite his inability to overcome the situation yet in a complete sense, he is

able to understand life is hard and we as human beings need to continue with our

lives in spite of hard circumstances.

In 2004 the MEN - Ministry of Education in Spanish - published a document

with citizenship standards to be worked inside the schools in Colombia; therefore,

there are actions to be applied at home and school for the development of some

abilities in order to have harmonious environments for the search of peaceful contexts

based on the post-conflict ideals the country is promoting. Nevertheless, there are no

specific established standards for English learning in Colombia and, as a result,

morality is defined as the cognitive and emotional progress to take wise decisions

towards different real situations autonomously.

In the next extract, I noticed the informant displayed another ability found that

is personally developed and used in conflicts resolution called self-evaluation.

“the last year I had three friends in my classroom, they are the "team"

in this place because I was bery important for she and me be together but she

left me and I was very selfish with them and one day they had a discussion

with me and im person very expesif - it means I don’t keep quiet with my

thoughts (translation) - I don't care what think the others about me

because I say - what I am (translation) - well this day fighter I treat her bad

and I fell very bad and speak wtih them and I apologize”. Extract No. 3. Vale.

Story No. 3

I could learn from the previous extract that my informant made a process of

self-evaluation after the situation she faced; she was able to recognize her own

mistakes as well as undergoing a process to know herself better in order to correct

reactions she realized were not correct. Contrary to my previous conceptions about

her due to the fact that she shows herself as a strong person who does not care about

others’ opinions towards her behavior and ideas, I can conclude it is important to


avoid a priori judgments about my students.

Active participation in citizenship is a must to improve abilities to solve

conflicts effectively as well as the process that is developed in two human

dimensions: social and inner (Gómez, 2005); in the case of the excerpt previously

described the inner process the informant went through is noticeable.

Another aspect that emerged from data collected was a theme named

generation of alternatives, which was based on the theory and content of some

informants’ interviews that were used to validate insights from the stories and is

defined as the ability they have to think of and create alternative and positive

solutions to the conflicts they expressed in their stories; in the following extract this is

exemplified and manifested by the informant:

"This year in the classroom, specificly in the grade 8A happened a lot of

steals... But they never steal to me, until that time...We are painting it, and my

(portaminas) is in my place, just on the table. It takes two hours finish the draw. But

when I return to my table something was missed, exactly, my pencil. But it was

special because I've drew many things with it. I missed it, and I buy other. Like two

weeks later I found it, it was in the floor. I can't belive it! but now I have two very

good pencils." Nejima Yusuke. Story No. 3

I could learn from the previous extract the way the informant is able to look

forward to different solutions. Contrary to my personal ideas, analyzing his insights

demonstrated by the previous story that ability me as adult ignore he possesses and

can improve upon by motivation and training.

Academic achievement and the development of interpersonal competence are

needed in programs where educators promote those two aspects. As a consequence,

students can achieve positive results in real-life conflicts they need to face; moreover,

the construction of knowledge becomes meaningful and remarkable in the sense that

learners have chances to face their conflicts positively (Stevahn, 2004).


…pues recordé mucho los momentos que pasaba con mi tío (I realized life is

very short and we never know if we are going to keep alive the next day), y pues

de ahí a que mi tío estuvo, él estuvo enfermo más o menos durante cinco años y

siempre fue fuerte y siempre él...a pesar de estar enfermo siempre decía que él no

tenía nada, siempre se mantenía fuerte, creyendo que él estaba sano y él logro pues

esto durante cinco años y pues creo que hasta ahora pues que el haya fallecido fue

algo más tranquilo para él. Extract No. 5. ValB's interview.

In the preceding extract the informant expressed the outcome after a process

of loss of one of the closest members in her family. I could notice the evolution of her

reaction and the adaptation she developed some time afterward; she could have a

positive reaction after cultivating one’s ability. All humans have to solve difficult

situations known as critical consciousness which is the ability of being conscious of

the situation and having a critical point of view about it in a neutral manner.

Correspondingly, experiential learning theories suggest that useful learning

occurs as a result of (a) interaction with the social environment, (b) the continuous

process of confronting and resolving conflicts between expectations and actual

experience, and (c) the testing of principles that emerge from experience (Dewey and

Lewing, n.d., p. 2)

...son gustos a nivel de la persona, eemm pues creo quee las demás

personas no tienen que juzgarte por lo que te gusta o lo que no te gusta...pero

la verdad yo no me fijo en eso (being sociable) sino pues, la verdad pienso

pues en ser felíz y yo misma porque eso es lo que me define como persona"

Excerpt No. 6. The hobbit's interview.

The previous extract displays the informant self-reference manifested in terms

of social relationships. I can learn from it that the informant is also able to defend her

own personality and contrary to what I believed, she is able to be alone no matter

what others’ conceptions of life are - based on the fact humans tend to be social

beings. It is very interesting to see how she is able to defend her personal ideas and

views of life without following massive ideas to be with others.


The environment consists of those conditions that promote or hinder,

stimulate or inhibit the characteristic activities of a living being (Dewey, 1903, p.16).

A being connected with other beings cannot perform her/his own activities without

taking the ones of others into account; in that sense, it is important to add the

environment provides learners conditions to promote or hinder their learning process

and as a consequence it is imperative to foster a positive environment where conflicts

resolution and negotiation are displayed.

Subcategory 1: conciliation as a tool to reach reciprocal benefits

The first subcategory found is related to the conflicts negotiation ability that

the informants displayed by means of their conflicts management cooperatively, as

well as taking into account the others to achieve a positive outcome after facing any

situation that was conflictive for them.

The name of this category comes from the voices found in the informants’ life

stories and their interviews at the time they manifested the necessity to interact with

the other actors involved in the situations they described with the purpose of

overcoming them.

The following excerpt from my informants’ stories exemplifies his necessity

expressed to have help from others to overcome situations they consider conflictive

for themselves:

“I'm in eleven grade, the study is very hard and I don't like it nothing.

I'm loosing math and biology. don't understand the numbers, and the

environment is hard. But in my life I want to draw...All my classmates tell me

that study, fight for have good notes. but I don't care about it. I tried, but I

don't understand anything, everything was very difficult. I want some help

and my brother help me. I'm finally in peace with the study”. Extract No. 7.

Nejima Yusuke. Story No. 4


The previous excerpt was the result of an exercise of perspective I asked

students to do during the last session of the pedagogical intervention in order to

acknowledge my students’ predictions about future conflicts they thought they would

face three years ahead - when they are in eleventh grade. From the last extract I

could learn this informant is conscious about his necessity to look for help at the time

of facing an academic failure and that he realizes it is his only solution to overcome

failure; moreover, it can be noticed that contrary to my previous inferences, some of

my students consider academic failure a conflictive situation that affects them. Before

doing this inferential exercise I thought students tended to be relaxed towards their

academic results; as a consequence, I realized I take things for granted with students

and that is the reason why we had distant relationships.

Established conflict transformation needs to incorporate willingness,

constructive change and personal growth from the person who faces those kind of

situations (Lederach, 1994, posted in Höglund, K., Söderberg Kovacs, M. (April

2010: 367-390); as a matter of fact, the last excerpt describes how the informant

could notice his necessity of looking for help in order to overcome his academic

failure and as a consequence, realize the importance of cooperating with others in

order to overcome that situation.

Another clear example of the informant’s need to conciliate with others to find

a solution for a conflictive situation they infer they will face in the future is displayed

in the next excerpt:

“Time after that I finished my school I was doing the most difficult

obstacule that I faced, the final exam: "Saber 11", I studied per days I read a

lot of books, I was ready, but in the most unexpected moment, something

happen, something terrible. When I was doing the exam, the teacher asked me

my identification card, I checked my pocked, but I didn't find my billford, in

that moment I was scared, I didn't know why I didn't have my billford, I


suppose that anyone will stealed me in the bus, but in that moment It doesn't

matter. I was desesperated, because I couldn't finish my exam, and I had to

ask for a copy in a notary's office, and I had to reprogram my exam, and I'll

take a lot of time, but I didn't give up thought and I found three possible

solutions: 1) I'll call my mother because I know that I have a photocopy

of my identification card in the house, and it was near to the place where

I was doing the exam...”Extract No. 8. Reo Kamirawa. story No. 4

After doing a perspective exercise during the pedagogical intervention called

“Me in three years”, it can be inferred that contrary to what we as adults think,

teenagers still have the necessity to conciliate and negotiate with others in order to

solve simple but significant situations for themselves; besides, I could learn from the

previous excerpt that the informant is able to provide alternatives to solve a situation

he considers is conflictive and also to be humble enough to ask for help at the time he

realizes that is the last resource he can use.

Negotiation is developed through practice and by the process of facing

conflictive situations on a daily basis (Spector, 2007); based on that, the informant is

displaying his capacity to negotiate and solve his situations by the facing of daily life

situations such oblivion of a document to take a test.

Assertive communication is another capacity that can be inserted inside the

conciliation category; in the next extract the informant exemplifies the use of the

aforementioned capacity in the management of interpersonal conflict:

"emm pues en realidad no se ha vuelto a presentar desde que

realizamos un acuerdo, con mi mamá se han arreglado mucho mejor las

cosas y hemos mantenido el respeto entre las dos." ValB's interview

In the excerpt above the informant’s decision to do an agreement with her

mom which outcome has been the solving of other situations by means of agreements

development and also the necessity of providing assertive communication to handle

situations like those.


One of the capacities found in the extracts analyzed was Consequences

account, characterized by the ability the informants manifested in a reflection on the

consequences of situations they faced previously:

“When I be on eleven grade I imagine that I am going to be so

powefull because I want to do many things, for example: I'll drive car, help in

Pet Rescue and so many things, but my most big fear is that I cannot do all my

dreams, and I imagine that I am not going to do all my goals. I am going to

work hard on all the things I want. I know that If I don't be serious on

academic things I cant done all my dreams. I'll travel around the world,

meating new cultures, and for this I will be ausent on school responsabilities

and my plan was that I am going to take virtual classes or I dont know but I

am going to try to be an excellent student." Valentina Cerón. Story No. 4

From the previous extract it can be inferred the different alternatives and

consequences the informant displays in her story about the prospective exercise

whereby the informant and others face conflicts and the manner she consider she can

solve them; it is a sense of autonomy where she mentions she has decided to confront

those situations that are considered conflictive for herself; at the same time, she

shows consciousness towards the nature of humanity and that normally we are called

to face and overcome difficult situations. It is remarkable to see and interpret how she

is able to achieve her own process without any adult’s help.

Conflicts are manifested in the school scenario—conflicts as the result of

human interaction (Lederach, late 1980s, posted in Höglund, K., Söderberg Kovacs,

M., April 2010: 367-390); consequently, for society it is important that classrooms

promote positive management of conflicts as well as resolution of them in an

integrative manner - where both parties win - for the sake of a better country and

world. Therefore consequences count and the resilience displayed in the previous

extract is considered a positive step towards the aforementioned objective.

Furthermore, peaceful negotiation of conlficts was another emergent theme


from the informants’ interviews defined as the ability to communicate effectively in

order to solve a conflict, keep an arrangement, handle a conversation where parties

listen to each other and arrive at a positive conclusion for both.

The following excerpt shows an example of it:

pues como llevamos una amistad muy larga y a pesar de la

desconfianza que se presentó, (we decided to talk, solve the troubles and

arrange the misunderstanding) para que pues no rompieramos la amistad de

varios años que ya llevábamos. Extract No. 10. ValB's interview

Over there we can notice how the informant denotes the importance of her

friendship over the conflict faced. She shows it is more important than the situation

presented, and that she decided to talk and solve any difference they may have. It is

remarkable how she prioritizes her friendship over the conflict.

The aforementioned ability - peaceful negotiation of conlficts - is defined as

the capacity to express one’s own ideas, feelings and conclusions to avoid hurting the

others (Chaux, 2004); as a consequence, this allows people to solve conflicts

peacefully and positively by the management of a conversation where both parties

listen to each other with the purpose of obtaining a common consensus.

Furthermore, another extract pertaining to this first category shows an ability

denominated as construction of a reciprocal solution that is defined as the ability

informants have to look for alternatives to solve any conflictive situation by the

achievement of a solution that is convenient to both parties involved:

…emm pues yo la solución que le daría sería puesss portarme mejor

en clase emm hacer mejores trabajos así pues que se de cuenta de quee si

podemos lograr un buen trabajo en clase y pues la ayuda que yo buscaría sería

to talk to the group due to we are very cohesive. Extract No. 11. Okami's

interview

The informant expressed a possible solution he would propose to a conflictive

situation with a teacher due to her attitude. In response to the student’s attitude


towards her class – “myself” - she expressed how she could possibly negotiate with

her classmates and the teacher in order to have a harmonious environment to develop

their classes. I infer from the informant’s ideas her group is able to have a solution to

their conflicts by negotiating in an integrative manner, which implies a positive

outcome for both parties involved.

As a matter of fact, children succeed in the classroom and beyond by the

development of skills to solve conflicts through their identification along with their

solutions in a cooperative manner; it means they need others (Harris & Hodges, 1995)

- in this particular case their own group - to construct their solutions to conflicts and

also the solutions to face them.

Subcategory No. 2: self-reference to understand oneself and others

The second subcategory that was found refers to processing the informants

displayed and developed with themselves with the purpose of solving their conflicts

in a positive and peaceful manner; as a consequence, they expressed in their stories

and interviews a personal process they handled at the time of facing the situations

they described without affecting the other party involved and, on the contrary, they

went through a personal process to overcome those.

The name came from an analysis of the emergent themes of the informants’

stories and interviews where they displayed a process personally developed, in which

they can reference themselves without affecting others and making them change

methods.

Therefore, citizenship learning – necessary in order to have a peaceful

environment and as a consequence of the solution to conflicts - is a process of

constructions of meanings resulting from social interactions and in particular


interpretive contexts; transactions allow the individual to develop a self-reference,

empathy and community development (Vygotsky, 1978).

In the subsequent paragraphs some extracts are going to be discussed to

exemplify the second subcategory:

“I brake the table. I was so scary. I don't want to tell my mom that “I

brake a table” So I fix it, it wasn't the best table but ... it was something.

Anyone notices it and I don't have to pay it. I pass the year and the table stay

like that...broken.” Extract No. 12. Nejima Yusuke. Story No. 1

In the previous excerpt I can notice how the informant expresses his worry

about the mistake he committed and, at the same time, through his short story he

described the manner he took responsibility towards the situation in order to fix the

broken table no matter the final outcome of the situation. He demonstrated his

personal consciousness about things he has to fix when he damages them;

consequently, it is the result of a personal process of responsibility taking.

In the excerpt previously interpreted it is clearly displayed how the

informant’s responsibility - part of his ethics - lead him to fix the table that he

accidentally broke in order to avoid facing a bigger conflict.

Ago a lot time, in a far away lugar, existed a man who's name was

erased by the times arena, and a woman who was forgotten like the ancient

idols from the ancient cultos. they had a children, they was intoxicated por

aquello that they used said that was "love". Some time after, they decided to

share their house but en ese momento ocurrio something unexpected, they

“discovered that they was dreaming; escaping from a cruel reality, that now

they had to afrontar. they, asi no lo supieran, woke with that desicion. Pero

despertar is more difficult, cuando vienes de estar in a utopia, but at the

same way is something necessary, because el destino de los que se

empeñan en soñar is forgot the way they live and prefer the fantasys. Pero

esta historia se trata that doloroso awakening and the way how this affect to

that little children quien estaba starting his life. But it's another history que

sera contada in the next occasion by his "escritor". Exract No. 13. Reo

Kaminawa. Story No. 1

After interpreting this extract I can infer the informant expresses big pain


towards the situation he faces with his parents during and after their divorce;

nevertheless, he displays consciousness and acceptance towards the situation he is

facing and as a result, he manifests how this situation has permitted him to face being

strong and becoming more resilient towards conflictive situations.

“Once upon a time in 2010, Paliz live with her parents and her

brother, in the weekend Paliz stay with her grandma since she was

born, the grandma was sick... very sick, she can't move since she have

memory, Paliz was helped her grandma all the time, the grandma for

Paliz form a goods moments in the memory of Paliz, all in that

moment start... the problem of the grandma worse as far as the point

no he doesn't speck, she was a body of my grandma but her soul don't

stay in her body, she was see you, don't seem her, she was loocks like

a toy, she wasn't happy, she was so sad in her face, i know, she was

suffer a lot, she was deserve a beautiful and a better life "sais

Paula", in the next month her grandma die". Extract No. 14. Paliz’

Story No. 1

In this extract I realized a sense of autonomy in the informant due to her

appearing sad, but at the same time, by her facial reflection she displays satisfaction

to see her grandma’s right to stop suffering after a difficult illness. It is remarkable to

notice how a teenager is able to reflect upon life and death to overcome peace after

the loss of a relative.

As a result, the transformation of conflicts requires self-transformation in

order to achieve positive solutions that help people to develop themselves as better

human beings able to transform conflict as a positive opportunity to grow (Lederach,

the late 1980s, posted in Höglund, K., Söderberg Kovacs, M., April 2010: 367-390).

Subsequently, emotions management provides human beings - in this case,

this informant - the capacity to handle his/her own emotions in a positive manner

with the purpose of facing difficulties in a positive and peaceful manner (Chaux,

2016).

podría decirse que está inspirada en digamos que mi pasado con un toque


pintoresco de fantasía, digamos que es más prosa melodramática, entonces es una

manera de digamos que expresar esos sentimientos sin entrar en muchos detalles de

ese pasado. Extract No.15. Reo Kamirawa's interview.

This extract is based on the interview done with the informant who developed

his stories in the third person, fictionally, and explains the reasons he does - I infer

keeping aside negative feelings - in order to handle better his emotions and avoid

being affected again by them.

Another ability described is the identification of emotions which is one

emotional ability that consists of the recognition and naming of self-emotions by the

identification of physical signals and their intensity at the time of facing conflicts in

order to respond correctly in the future to other conflictive situations that can result to

be worse (Chaux, 2016).

… entonces yo que hacía, para que cambiar ese sueño transformarlo

para que esa muerte (grandma's death) se transformara en algo más bello.

Extract No. 16. Paliz' interview

The earlier extract showed me the informant's capacity to transform a difficult

situation to a positive one and to take advantage of it in order to improve her

reactions to conflictive situations; it is what is called resilience, which is the capacity

to become stronger after facing difficult or conflictive situations (Woods, 2017).

…porque yo pues al ser nueva en algún sitio siempre soy un

poco distante, sí? yo soy un poquito antisocial se podría decir así, yo

no hablo con tanta confianza a las personas que son tan abiertas,

entonces al inicio todos me ven como muy cerrada, muy callada muy

reservada en mis cosas. Extract No. 17. Paliz' interview.

In this extract I could notice how the informant is able to describe herself at

the time she becomes new at any place, which is a clear sign her sense of self-

description is well developed; consequently she could be able to interact with others

in a conscious manner at any moment - including conflictive situations.


The aforementioned capacity can provide people with tools to handle conflicts

in a positive and peaceful manner; identities serve to promote positive social

interaction in different situations (Gómez, 2005).

...entonces yo me reflejé en once como perdiéndolas (matemáticas y bilogía),

pero a mí lo que en verdad me gusta es el dibujo, entonces yo pensé que yo me iba a

enfocar en el dibujo e iba como a pasar a un segundo plano en esas materias, pero

después pues ya como que iba a decir como que no esto está mal, entonces ya me iba

a poner así las pilas, entonces...Extract No. 18. Nejima Yusuke's interview.

In the preceding extract, I deduce the informant is able to engage in a self-

reference process where he denotes his personal knowledge of himself at the time of

facing challenges in the future towards academic issues; this is an indicator he can

identify possible consequences based on his likes.

As a consequence, the perspective-taking is developed in order to project

himself years ahead, bearing in mind personal traits and evaluating alternatives to

solve situations that represent conflict for the people (Chaux, 2016).

The categories described in this chapter aim to answer the research question:

What do 8th graders' written life stories unveil about their capacity to negotiate

conflicts in a peaceful classroom environment? Their relation is based on the

information provided by the informants in their life stories and their co-interpretation

in their interviews. These were the core of the interpretation due to the fact they gave

sense to their conflictive situations and revealed their negotiation capacities in their

narratives.

Moreover, they were named, displayed and described as the result of mental

processes that emerged in the data. Their relation to the question is described after

interpreting the process unveiled in the informants’ ideas in their narratives; they are

negotiation capacities found at the time they face personal and interpersonal conflicts


that affected them in the past, present and possibly in their near future by the

development of a perspective exercise during the pedagogical intervention.

In the next chapter, conclusions are going to be illustrated by the answer for

the research question in order to provide ideas for further research about the topic.


Chapter 7

Conclusions

The main objective of this study was to unveil and explain negotiation

capacities in the participants at the time they faced conflicts by means of their written

life stories, as well as the discovery of their sense of resiliency when facing difficult

situations on their own. In this section, I describe the connection among the findings

previously discussed and the research question: What do eighth-graders’ written life

stories unveil about their capacity for conflict negotiation in a peaceful classroom

environment? Through the recall of the participants’ voices in their life stories and

interviews. Moreover, I present the limitations that emerged during the elaboration of

the project and some implications for teachers to do as a pedagogical practice.

Finally, I will propose some questions for further research practices of teacher-

researchers in the field.

The findings resulted generally in the main category called Sense of Autonomy

to Face Conflicts, which is explained by means of two sub-categories. The first

described the manner in which participants include the others to solve their conflicts

by conciliating with them on a reciprocal solution entitled Conciliation as a tool to

reach reciprocal benefits and the second one, Self-reference to understand oneself

and others, concerning the personal process participants underwent by reflecting

upon their own attitudes and actions to solve conflicts on their own initiative.

Based on the above, and responding to the research question, the main

category revealed the capacity my participants materialized autonomously when

facing conflicts on their own. The narratives used in the intervention permitted the


fostering of the students’ empowerment in conflicts solving, the same as their display

of capabilities to solve difficult situations and provide alternatives to overcome those.

Additionally, common patterns emerged from the interpretation of the

aforementioned narratives and interviews which evolved into the main category and

sub-categories described [see Chapter 5]. The conflict resolution and peaceful

environment permitted students to become aware of the importance of solving their

conflicts positively, and helped them to practice and improve their productive skills in

English.

Taking into account the first subcategory, the participants showed a high level

of disposition to solve their conflicts in an integrative manner due to the expression of

their desire to talk to the other party affected with the purpose of acquiring a

reciprocal solution that benefited both; consequently, they demonstrated how they

need to have good relationships with others. Likewise, the second subcategory

illustrates how pupils were able to reflect upon their actions and demonstrate their

sense of honesty by accepting their mistakes and describing concrete actions to solve

the situations.

Along with the above arguments, I do conclude that my vision of learning and

teaching became refined and confirmed the fact that learners and teachers are able to

be co-constructors of knowledge and management of situations faced, similar to

Lyle’s (2008) assertion that learning is “a social process and knowledge as a jointly

constructed phenomenon” (p. 279): consequently, I also defend the idea that the

classroom (Chaux, Lleras & Velásquez, 2004) should foster respect for the other in

order to promote and perpetuate peaceful environments necessary for our country.

Considering the aforementioned facts, I must add that an inquiry took place on


the two aspects mentioned above and their relationship due to the fact that, as a

teacher-researcher, I have noticed the emotional dimension should be taken into

account in the learning process of a language and, as a consequence, conflict

resolution and language in use (in the form of narratives) are worthy of being studied

as long as good rapport is one of the factors taken into account concerning learning

inside the classroom.

Limitations

The main constraint in this study constituted the lack of time to develop the

pedagogical intervention due to the fact that as the teacher of the population it was

my main duty to cover the topics established in the syllabus for them; it was a big

challenge to reach the balance between time for the development of the intervention

and the covering of the planning. Fortunately, the principal, academic coordinator,

and English department permitted me to develop this study using class time for that

purpose.

Another issue I faced was the pupils’ reactions at the beginning of the

implementation, owing to the fact they were and felt totally dependent on adults’

directions to develop any kind of activity and their difficulty to engage in their

retrospections under the misconception [and mine too] that they had not faced any

conflict before and also that they could solve anything on their own.

A third drawback found was the adaptation of the model of research due to

my having to adapt existent methods to analyze narratives based on my participants’

style and the situations they described in their life stories. It was a big challenge at the


beginning of the analysis exercise that showed me I was finally able to re-construct,

unveil and describe pupils’ capacity to negotiate.

Pedagogical Implications

The main pedagogical implication of this study is directly related to the

inclusion and consciousness of the importance of social relationships inside the EFL

classroom. I consider the same to be the enhancement of structural traits of the

language- It is extremely important to take into account learners’ capacities,

emotional well-being and positive rapport inside the classroom with the aim to

provide them with strategies and tools to solve problems they may face during their

learning process. As Gibbons (2010) asserts, in the school scenario conflict resolution

education needs to be enhanced to provide students with the capacity to create

alternative solutions to the problems.

Another implication I consider needs to be taken into account is the fact that

language teachers should acknowledge their pupils as active agents of their own

learning who are able to co-construct knowledge by the use of their previous

experiences as well as their conflicts faced which consisted of an important resource

to be used in the classroom in order to increase pupils’ motivation, based on the fact

that I believe when learners include their personal life experiences learning then

becomes personalized.

This study is done to innovate into the classroom practices by the inclusion of

an ethical issue [conflict resolution] that is influencing the Colombian population

with the post-conflict education. Language learning needs to be included in this, as a

result of a socio-cultural practice that impacts the learners' immediate context. In


addition, negotiation skills should be included inside the EFL classroom providing

teachers and learners chances to increase their emotional intelligence that is crucial

nowadays to succeed in every aspect of our lives.

Finally, I would like to highlight that I have found very few studies that

incorporate negotiation and conflict resolution to integrate the language classroom

and it is extremely important to increase the production of studies that enhance

pupils’ emotional skills in concordance with the assertion that language learning is a

social construction.

Further Research Questions

As stated above, I propose the following research questions for opening new

chances of research:

● How do conflict resolution skills enhance positive environments to

foster critical literacy practices in the EFL classroom?

● How does conflict resolution manifest itself in the EFL classroom?

● How can conflict resolution be promoted in the language classroom?

● To what extent can “Cátedra de paz”be included in the EFL classroom

to enhance learners’ literacy practices?

● How can teachers train students to perpetuate peace discourses in

society by the use of EFL?


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Appendix A.

Consent Form Model

CARTA DE AUTORIZACIÓN

PARTICIPACIÓN EN UNA TESIS DE MAESTRÍA EN LINGÜÍSTICA

APLICADA A LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLÉS COMO LENGUA

EXTRANJERA

YO,______________________________________, identificad@ con cédula de

ciudadanía número ______________________ de __________________, en mi

calidad de representante legal del estudiante

__________________________________________ identificado con

______________________ No. ____________________________. Autorizo

SI_____ NO____ a la docente Paola Andrea Rubiano Arana del área de inglés en el

Colegio Agustiniano Norte, el uso de la imagen de mi representado, mediante la

reproducción o la comunicación pública de sus escritos e ideas frente a una entrevista,

con la finalidad de ser incluidos dentro del reporte de los hallazgos del proyecto de

tesis para la maestría en Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza del Inglés de la

Universidad Distrital titulado “EFL Eighth-graders’ Negotiation Capacities at a

Peace Classroom Environment” estrictamente con fines educativos e investigativos

y para la enseñanza-aprendizaje del idioma.

El objetivo de dicha intervención es generar ambientes en los cuales los participantes

reflexionen sobre acontecimientos sociales, teniendo como código la lengua extranjera,

y a sí mismo promover la producción oral y escrita en este idioma.

Por virtud de este documento, el suscrito declara que es legalmente titular de la patria

potestad del menor, y en consecuencia garantiza que puede otorgar la presente

autorización y cesión, sin limitación alguna, de conformidad con el Código de Infancia

y Adolescencia vigente.

Cordialmente,

Docente: ______________________________


Coordinadora Académica: ________________________________

XXXXXX


Appendix B.

Interview Protocol

Protocolo de Entrevista

Nombre:____________________________ Nickname: _______________________

Querido informante:

Mi nombre es Paola Andrea Rubiano Arana y te estaré entrevistando tras la lectura de

tus historias, acerca de las situaciones de conflictos (grandes o pequeños) y las

soluciones que diste a las mismas.

El objetivo de mi estudio es revelar las capacidades que manifiestes a través de tus

historias en el momento de enfrentar conflictos y entender la manera como le das

sentido a dichas situaciones.

La información recogida de la presente entrevista será utilizada para el análisis de

datos de mi estudio y validar la misma manifestada dentro de tus historias. Has sido

seleccionad@ dentro del grupo de 60 estudiantes de los grados 8A y C debido a que

encuentro tus historias con información de suma importancia para mostrar resultados

del estudio realizado.

Recuerda que anteriormente te fue entregado el consentimiento para utilizar tus

historias y tus ideas complementarias acerca de ellas. Esta entrevista tomará 45 minutos

aproximadamente y seguirá el protocolo establecido.

Por último, te recomiendo hacer lectura de tus historias previamente para así confirmar

las interpretaciones que hice respecto a las mismas, tus aportes son muy valiosos y mil

bendiciones.


Appendix C.

Power Point Presentation: The Conflict Management Circle.


Appendix D.

Life Stories Samples

EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities I EFL EIGHTH...

Documents

Transcript of EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities I EFL EIGHTH...