Abstract
M.Ed.
The focus and purpose of this study was to explore and describe how conversations
in sandplay therapy sessions are structured and organised, and to determine how
these dimensions of conversations are linked to the outcomes of a sandplay therapy
session. It is believed that through play, troubled learners are able to use their
imagination, communicate awareness of what is happening in their life worlds,
transform their thinking patterns and are able solve problems. The samples I initially
started with were two, 13 year old learners at a school in the western suburbs of
Johannesburg. Yet one dropped out during the transcribing process. Please refer to
Chapter Three for further details. Therefore this study only focuses on a sample of
one 13 year old female learner. The adolescent learner interviewed is from a
historically disadvantaged background and at the time was experiencing emotional
difficulties as well as learning difficulties.
The research was constructed in ways that are congruent and ‘fitting’ with the
underlying epistemological assumptions of social constructionism, which implies
understanding the participant’s accounts as stories and the environment of the study
as a conversational domain (Mischler, 1986). In accordance with social
constructionists, focus was drawn towards the fact that individual language is
constructed through a dialogical process between people in context.
In attempting to understand and develop further insight into the conversational focus
of this study an Ethnomethodological research design was used. This research
design allows for the original reanalysis of social problems and a highly integrated
treatment of their various implications for the conceptualisation and analysis of
fundamental aspects of social organisation (Heritage, 1984 p.3). What has emerged
from Ethnomethodology is that participants in real worlds do show orientations to the
most immediate, embodied, pragmatic contexts of any given utterance (Hesser-Biber
& Leavy 2006). Data was gathered using an audio and video recorded session, after
which it was transcribed and analysed using Conversation analysis to explore the
conversational structures and organization across four levels of analysis as
v
described by Clayman and Gill, (2004, cited in ten Have, 2007). It details the
macroscopic view of what is happening in the conversation, observing discrete
sequences of action e.g. common sequential actions such as requests, invitations
etc., single actions that comprise sequences and lastly the microscopic level
whereby specific lexical choices, intonation contours and non – verbal behaviours
may exist.
The findings of this study have revealed that through the journey into a world of
images, symbolic material, poetic understanding and deep reflective therapeutic
conversation, the narratives told empowers our clients to form or mould a deep and
rich description of their experiences. Through the use of sandplay therapy tools and
the therapeutic conversation, the participant was able to externalize and re-authorize
aspects of her life. A deep and rich understanding developed through making the
conversation a learning experience. The problem could then be separated from the
learner empowering and restoring her integrity, revitalizing identity and helping
reshape a new direction or life-goal story. Language was of great significance here,
converging symbols and words to learn patience, perspective and to listen out for
rhythm and intonation. This allowed the boundaries of space, time and
consciousness to remain open for layers of meaning, reaching back in time and
forward into the unknown. A story and language starts to develop, one that has
meaning and that encourages further development and correction, significant to the
participant’s current learning difficulty.