created the necessary conditions for the SAC students either to Ieam to Ieam or to Ieam the
language (see above, section 2.3, p. 24).
When I became fully aware of the mismatch between the expectations of the project
and the actual outcomes I felt completely inept, in particular in my role of counsellor. For
the reader to understand my feeling at that time, I will draw a comparison, a strategy
ethnographers commonly use to problematise the taken-for-granted events. Ethnographers
usually draw parallels at different levels and look at one thing in terms of the other. For
instance, it is very common to compare different professions. Teachers and gums would be a
good example (Riley, 1997). On several occasions, I compared myself, a SAC counsellor,
with a physician. Although the comparison is not the best one (in no way do I consider
students patients!), it is effective if I only focus on the functions of the physician and
compare them with the ones of the SAC counsellor. Physicians need to reach a diagnosis. In
the same way, counsellors need to identify the way a learner carries out learning processes to
identify what is not working properly. Physicians also prescribe treatment or medicine to
solve the problem. Counsellors, in turn, are expected to give some advice for the learner to
find her way in self-direction. However, to reach a diagnosis, or to prescribe a medicine, you
need to be completely assured about the things you are doing. In my case, I was not assertive
at all, while nevertheless I was carrying out diagnoses and prescribing treatments. I had to
wonder how many SAC learners I had killed! Perhaps the reader would see this as an
exaggeration but it is not. At least, very deeply in my self I knew that I was just pretending. I
certainly knew that I would not have liked to be in hands of a pretend-to-be doctor!
But apart from the possible correlation of our function as counsellors and the high
attrition in SAC, there were other conceivable reasons for SAC students' failures. Some
people say that, in general, learners need teachers in order to learn. Others strongly believe
that it is the Mexican culture that cannot accept an educational system that lacks the figure
of a teacher as the leader of the process. Some argue that the strategy involved in introducing
and implementing this innovative system within the institution was the wrong one. And
others would point out the SACs procedures and logistics as the main problem. And all of
them may be right.
In short, my new roles and experiences in the SAC gave me a completely different
perspective of the project. The enthusiasm turned into serious concern and the assurances
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