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
Paola Andrea Rubiano Arana
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:
______________________________________
Juror:
______________________________________
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 6
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 7
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 8
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 9
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 10
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 11
List of Appendices
Appendix A. ............................................................................................................. 105
Appendix B. ............................................................................................................. 106
Appendix C. ............................................................................................................. 107
Appendix D. ............................................................................................................. 108
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 12
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 13
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 14
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 15
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 16
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 17
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 18
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,
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 19
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 20
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 21
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 22
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 23
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 24
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 25
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 26
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 27
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 28
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 29
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 30
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 31
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 32
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 33
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 34
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 35
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 36
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 37
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 38
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 39
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 40
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 41
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,
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 42
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 43
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 44
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 45
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 46
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 47
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 48
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 49
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 50
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 51
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 52
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 53
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,
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 54
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 55
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 56
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 57
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 58
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 59
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 60
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 61
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 62
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 63
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,
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 64
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).
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 65
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 66
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 67
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 68
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 69
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 70
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 71
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 72
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 73
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:
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 74
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 75
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 76
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 77
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 78
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 79
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 80
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).
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 81
…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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 82
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 83
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 84
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 85
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 86
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 87
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 88
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 89
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 90
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 91
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 92
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 93
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 94
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 95
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 96
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
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 97
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?
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 98
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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: ______________________________
Paola Andrea Rubiano Arana
Coordinadora Académica: ________________________________
XXXXXX
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 106
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.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 107
Appendix C.
Power Point Presentation: The Conflict Management Circle.
EFL eight-graders Negotiation Capacities 108
Appendix D.
Life Stories Samples