Integr Psych Behav DOI 10.1007/s12124-015-9323-5 R E G U L A R A RT I C L E

Reflective and Agentive Functions of Narrative Writing: a Qualitative Study on the Narratives of University Students Giovanna Esposito 1 & Maria Francesca Freda 1

# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract There is a lively debate in the literature on reflective processes and on the necessity to view them as consisting with differing levels of complexity. Within a semiotic and psychodynamic perspective, we present a conceptualization on reflective processes which distinguishes between reflection and reflectivity and articulates their relationship with narrative devices. The study analyzes 224 narratives of critical events written by 77 underachieving university students that took part in group training courses during the INSTALL European project. The corpus was subjected to a qualitative analysis of narrative function, with the aim of detecting narrative functions of reflection, reflectivity and agency, the latter being considered as an interconnected construct to the reflective process. The functions were discussed both on the basis of how the narrators reacted to the discontinuity in their self-image caused by the critical event, and based upon different types of narrative coherence (chronological, causal, thematic, autobiographical). The results highlighted that narratives with a reflection function, attribute the discontinuity generated by the event to the self, and show a causal coherence; those whose function is reflectivity interpret the discontinuity attributing it to the self in relation to others and present a thematic coherence; those of agency ascribe the discontinuity to a potential selves in action, and are characterized by an autobiographical coherence. The implications of the study will be discussed with reference to the value of narrative writing in promoting reflective-agentive processes. Keywords Reflection . Reflectivity . Agency . Narrative functions . Narrative coherence . Sense-making process . Semiotic and psychodynamic perspective

* Giovanna Esposito [email protected] 1

Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy

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Introduction In recent years much attention has been devoted to the issue of promoting reflective processes in Higher Education and the most effective ways to support them. Reflectivity is deemed useful for encouraging critical thinking and for supporting student academic productivity (Taylor 2011). In particular, underachieving students, often have reflective difficulties when they face specific developmental tasks (e.g., failing an exam) and consequent problems in using their time at university strategically (Padykula and Horwitz 2011). Moreover, narrative is nowadays considered an important device to develop reflective competences with underachieving students and great attention is devoted to the analysis of narrative function, namely the purpose or reason for which a narrative is produced (e.g., Marra and Holmes 2004; Ochs and Capps 2001; Thornborrow and Coates 2005). Little research, however, has been carried out on the link between narrative functions and narrative coherence (e.g., Nygren and Blom 2001), the latter being considered as a semiotic criterion of text organization that allows the narrative to fulfill its function. In this paper, we first present a semiotic and psychodynamic conceptualization of reflective process that distinguishes between two levels of complexity (reflection and reflectivity) and clarifies their relationship with the agency construct. Moreover, we analyze a narrative corpus of 224 written narratives of underachieving Italian college students who took part in the European INSTALL Project (Innovative Solutions to Acquire Learning to Learn), which consisted in the implementation of group training courses for underachieving university students. In particular, the project was aimed at promoting reflective processes that enable underachieving students to implement agentive actions. 1 During the group training, among other narratives, students were asked to fill in three narrative assignments (low, high and decisional turning point of their university experience) (McAdams et al. 2006). The study has two main aims: 1) to identify narratives with functions of reflection, reflectivity and agency and to explore their relationship with different types of narrative coherence; 2) to understand if specific narrative assignments (low, high or decisional turning point) are better at narratives with functions of reflection, reflectivity and agency. We believe that the study of narrative functions and deciding which narrative assignments could improve them may have useful implications in the field of Higher Education; specifically, it may contribute to understanding which devices are better at developing reflective and agency processes with underachieving students to improve their academic performance and, ultimately, their inclusion at university.

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Install brought together four partners: the SinAPSi Centre of the University of Naples Federico II (Italy), which was the leading partner, the NUIM University (Ireland), the Universidad de Seville (Spain) and NSPSPA (Romania). This project was funded with support from the European Commission. This publication only reflects the views of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.

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A Long Standing Debate About What Reflectivity is: Differences and Common Features Between Reflective Models Although the words reflection and reflectivity are at the center of a great debate, involving a variety of disciplines such as psychology, pedagogy or sociology, there is still great confusion about these terms. Specifically, we will refer to the debate developed in the field of education, with specific reference to Higher Education, which constitutes the research framework of this study. The issue of reflection in education is not new and its origin is frequently ascribed to Dewey (1933) who said that true learning occurs only after one has been through a learning experience and taken the time to weave meaning among the threads of the experience (Rodgers 2002). Starting from his work, many models of reflection have been developed with a great variability in terms of definitions of reflection, conditions which enables it and consequences on learning for ‘reflective’ students (e.g., Bleakley 2006; Kember et al. 2008; Moore 2011). Over the years, reflection has been equated variously with metacognition, introspection and critical thinking. For example, according to Fogarty (1994), reflection can be conceived as a metacognitive function, namely the students’ awareness of their thought to control their learning process. For Moore (2011), reflection may be defined as a self-reflective critical thinking, i.e., a form of knowledge directed to the thinking process itself. The variety of definitions affected both the way reflection is implemented in educational settings, and the way is researched (Harrison et al. 2003). In summary, while there is no doubt about the importance of reflection in education, many uncertainties concern what reflection means and, consequently, how to promote it. Many scholars (e.g., Bleakley 2006) agree in affirming that there is an increasing need to develop models of reflective process that provide clear and measurable definitions and identify methodological devices suitable for its promotion in educational contexts. Despite the different definitions, there are some common characteristics to these models; we will try to identify them because they have informed and oriented our approach to reflective process. A first trans-disciplinary issue on which there is general agreement is the Borigin^ of the reflective process: it is activated in response to a critical event that creates a discontinuity with existing sense making processes, which no longer prove able to cope with environmental Bvariability^ (Wee and Brooks 2010). Thus are produced the conditions leading to the reflective Bemergency^, since the subject is Bforced^ to reflect on the criticality and novelty of the event, that undermine her/his habitus (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992), or modus operandi. These are often ordinary, not necessarily dramatic events, which become critical in as much as they disrupt a continuity in the use of one’s sense making processes and Bforce^ the subject to operate a choice to overcome the state of unease, generated by the event.2 Not all events are critical, they can become so by virtue of the possible interpretations the subject attributes to the event. A second aspect is the idea of reflection as a multi dimensional process, the result of various levels of complexity. Most models conceive reflection developmentally, with

2

The term crisis derives from the Greek krisis, which in turn comes from krino meaning to separate, and by extension: to discern, to evaluate, to judge.

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different or hierarchical levels of reflective thought. In pedagogy, for example, Mezirow (1990) hypothesized four levels of increasing complexity (habitual action/ non-reflection, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection). In Sociology some scholars distinguish two levels: the first, often known as self-reflection, is defined as an internal dialogue aimed at identifying vague sensations (often called feelings) and refining them into defined emotions; the second refers to a socialization of emotions made possible by the subject’s acquisition of a capacity of self-observation (Burkitt 2012). Within a psychological-psychodynamic perspective, reflection is often taken to mean a process of interpretation of the self, of experiences and actions that the subject carries out in Bisolation^, addressing herself/himself, so to speak. In contrast, intersubjective reflection is defined as the reflective process that develops within and through interpersonal relationships and that gives rise to shared processes for the meaning of experiences (Finlay 2002). So in general, an Bintra-individual^ level and a Brelational^ dimension of reflective processes is increasingly being recognized in psychological literature dealing with this topic (Warin 2011). Finally, a third feature is the link between reflective processes and agency. According to many authors (e.g., Adams 2006), reflective awareness simply does not equate with the ability to transform one’s situation. Despite high levels of reflectivity, the subject can be unable to activate a self-development and to transform the increased reflectivity into the ability of making choices or acting in a goal-oriented manner. This means that being reflective simply does not equate with the ability to be an agent, namely an intentional being acting toward a goal. Many scholars (e.g., Mitchell and Green 2002) affirmed the need to emphasize what comes Bafter^ the moment of reflective awareness, the so-called post-reflective choice. Indeed, the development of reflectivity can even lead to phenomena of rumination, namely to the hesitation in continuing and abstracted ways of reflecting. In this case, subjects reach higher level of reflectivity but they are no longer capable of translating their reflective ability into agency. Consequently, many researchers frequently invoke the need to clarify the relation between reflective process and agency, and to make clear how agency can be defined. In fact, the concept of agency is much debated in various disciplines and is often confused with other constructs, such as empowerment or motivated action (Burkitt 2012). In this paper we adopt the conceptualization, proposed, within psychodynamic psychology, by Caston (2011) according to which agency is not equivalent to the acquisition of a more active, purposeful and dynamic attitude within the social context. Rather it is the outcome of a process of reflection and consists of three dimensions: reversibility, the ability to be flexible, to pause, and to move within the complexities of possible choices; self-observation, defined as an action (behavior, decision, etc.) carried out or recommended to others as a result of reversibility; appropriateness, namely a realistic assessment of how the choice takes into account the contextual constraints within which the action must take place.

A Semiotic and Psychodynamic Conceptualization of Reflective Processes We have already presented a conceptualization of the reflective process that fits within the debate on reflectivity having many dimensions and that, within a semiotic and

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psychodynamic perspective, discusses two levels of different complexity (Freda et al. 2015a). We do not mean to delve into the theoretical assumptions underlying the conceptualization at this point. Instead we want to underline how it is based on two issues that are poorly addressed in the literature on reflective processes: on the one hand a conception of emotions as regulators of sense-making processes, and on the other, an inter subjective declination of emotions that considers the relationship between individual and context. Rather than being identified as variables that interfere or threaten the linearity and rationality of relational processes, emotions are understood as the matrix of thought (Matte Blanco 1975), an unconscious mode of operation of the mind that generalizes, homogenizes the field of experience. This process of categorization that does not focus on the characteristics of the specific event but treats it in terms of class, or category of similar experiences is referred to as Bemotional semiosis^ (Freda 2011; Salvatore 2011; Salvatore and Venuleo 2008). For example, emotional semiosis does not mean a mother as an individual, but as the class of everything that can be associated with being a mother, it means motherness. According to a semiotic model of the mind, knowledge originates from the ability to process and differentiate emotional semiosis (Valsiner 2001, 2007). Following the previous example, it means that a subject becomes able to recognize the individual qualities of that specific mother, to distinguish her from all the other mothers belonging to the category of motherness. Moreover, the affective process cannot be understood in intra-psychological terms, as being confined within people’s heads, since it has a semiotic and dialogical nature: emotion is a semiotic regulator of the relationship between persons and their social context. We assumed that affective meaning is a collective product, performed through the individual minds. In other words, it emerges within and thanks to the communication, through and in terms of how people combine the signs according to the cultural context they are part of and that they contribute to build (Salvatore and Freda 2011). We assume reflective processes to be ever more analytical and complex mechanisms of experience differentiation. From these assumptions, we proposed a distinction between two levels of reflective process: reflection and reflectivity. The two terms share the same Latin root from the word re-flectere (= double folding) that refers to the mental process that allows a subject to achieve knowledge about herself/himself by refocusing the thinking action on itself. We assert that the two concepts take on a different meaning. Nevertheless, reflection and reflectivity do not represent two irreconcilable or antagonists process, rather they are different process but made possible from the common semiotic matrix of the mind. In fact we believe that differentiate the two process and give them two different terms is necessary to clarify the terms and specificity of reflective practices. Reflection is the psychological process by which individuals are able to gain new understanding of themselves and recognize themselves as a subjective entity of semiotic production (they reflect themselves). This means that reflection refers to two specific semiotic dimensions: subjectivity and sense-making process. Subjectivity is conceived as an embodied function which allow to organize one’s own experience due to the position a subject assumes in the context (Freda et al. 2015a). Sense-making is a semiotic process which organizes signs due to the variability, situation, and intersubjectivity of the experience (Esposito and Freda 2015; Freda et al. 2015b).

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Take the case of an underachieving university student who says in a written narrative: BI have had many bad experiences in my university history … I have always had trouble with my university colleagues, I never studied with anyone, nor have I established friendly relations with them…I always feel alone at the university and now I realize I am an isolated and insecure person…^. The subject sets up the narration in such a way as to present himself as the protagonist of the story, acknowledging the role he/she has taken on in the University context: the narrative informs us about a new way to give meaning to the Self within a specific context (alone, isolated, insecure) and the subject can now be thought of as an object of knowledge. There must be a mirroring function for reflection to be activated: the subjects can look at, and recognize themselves as they would their mirrored reflection. The mirroring function can be triggered by various stimuli such as people, events or even symbolic media such as narrative; in fact, even the latter can elicit new knowledge within subjects about themselves. For based upon Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans and Dimaggio 2007; Hermans and Hermans-Konopka 2010), 3 we can affirm that narrative, can activate a process of reflection and inform on the assumption of a specific I-position, a particular Bvoice^, among many possible, through which the subject gives meaning to her/his story. Each person can have different I-positions to represent, signify, or symbolize the relationship between self and context; however, she may also use the same I-position, consistently, regardless of context’s variability. Reflection is a prerequisite for a more complex form of thought about oneself. In fact, reflection is conceived as an important step to reach reflectivity. Through reflectivity the subject is able to think about the relational processes in which she/he is involved. Reflexivity occurs whenever a person, who is interacting with a context, elaborates the effects of her/his actions in an inter-subjective dynamic. Reflexivity is a semiotic process of transformation consisting in keeping in mind one’s own perspective and in giving meaning to the relational processes. Trough reflectivity, the subject gives a new meaning to a process (not to the Self), and recognizes the active role assumed in guiding events: she/he Blooks^ at the positioning assumed in context. The term positioning refers to the mode the subject uses to organize and give meaning to her/ his relationship with the context (De Luca Picione 2015; De Luca Picione and Freda 2015). With renewed reference to Dialogical Self Theory, we define reflectivity as the ability to recognize and process the I-position through which the subject signifies a specific relationship. This equates to understanding that one co-constructs relationships not only as a result of external causes, but also because of internal reasons, desires or needs that drive human action. Following a semiotic and psychodynamic model of the mind (e.g., Matte Blanco 1975), we assume that emotional matrices help to generate specific I-positions because emotions are conceived as matrices of thought (Matte Blanco 1975) and as semiotic devices of the relationship between the self and the context. Focusing one’s attention on positioning is equivalent to symbolizing one’s 3

Foundational to the Dialogical Self Theory is that the formation of an identity is dialogical in nature (Hermans and Dimaggio 2007). The Self is seen as a kind of Bpolyphonic novel^; although written by one person, the polyphonic novel is spoken by many Bsub-selves^ referred to as I-positions and as different voices these characters exchange information about their respective Me’s and their world, resulting in a complex narratively structured self. The dialogical self is not static and is inherently transformed by the exchanges amongst I-positions and with other people.

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personal emotional state in the relationship, to recognizing the dynamics enacted in order to adopt new possibilities for action. For example, recall the case of the female student who recounts her feeling of being alone and isolated at university. She continues the same narration by saying: BI could talk about many more episodes of this kind, but in all cases I have always done so out of character because I was afraid my colleagues would notice and criticize my diversity, as a person, as a student, as a girl, and every time someone approached me to ask me for my notes or anything like that, I invented an excuse not to talk to them, to stay alone with my alleged diversity …^. In this narrative, the student is not so much involved in a process of signification of a way of being, but of a way of acting within a relational context. She focuses on the positioning assumed in this relational context and she acknowledges the emotional dynamic enacted within the context, namely she had directed her isolation because of her fear of her peer’s judgment. In this sense, the student gives a new meaning to a process, and recognizes the active role assumed in guiding events. We believe that reflectivity is intrinsically linked to the ability to recognize how one’s choices have had consequences in the context: through reflectivity, the subject shifts from agendum of her/his actions, to identifying herself/himself as agens. Therefore, we assume that the first dimension into which agency is structured, called reversibility, is connected to reflectivity, in so much as the awareness of having oriented behavior, or enacted emotions within relationships, is equivalent to the recognition of one’s ability to operate choices. In this sense, the student of the example acknowledges that she could implement different actions, but she Bchoses^ isolation on the basis of an emotional dynamic characterized by fear of other’s opinions. However, it is necessary that this reflective awareness also lead to the implementation of actions appropriate to the contexts. In this sense, we believe the last two dimensions of which agency is composed (self-observation and appropriateness) are the result of a reflective process and consist in the adoption of actions (behaviors, decisions, etc.) necessary for the re-orientation of the subject within the context.

Narrative as a Process of Semiotic Transformation of Emotional Meaning Matrices The reflective process requires that the information present itself in the form of representation, that is, that it re-present itself again (from the Latin re-adpraesentare=re-presentation, make present again): it is, therefore, representation that allows the activation of a reflective process. Narrative devices play a key role in facilitating the representation and re-assignment of meaning to the events of one’s own life (Freda and Martino 2015; Lieblich 2012). Narrative is, in fact, a device of conventional categorization that moves within an analogical framework and activates ways of representing experiences. Specifically, following Bruner (1990), narration can be conceived as a mode of thought: while the paradigmatic mode of human thinking is best suited for explaining how the physical world works, when people seek to explain human behavior and experience they resort to the narrative mode. The paradigmatic mode searches for the one true answer to a question about physical reality. On the contrary the narrative mode tries to explain why

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people do what they do: the stories ultimately seek verisimilitude and seem to capture what subjective human experience is really like. Over the last decades, several authors have been acknowledging the centrality of telling stories and how narratives play an important role in giving meaning to one’s own experience (Bruner 1990; Angus and McLeod 2004; McAdams et al. 2008). According to a narrative framework, subjects are conceived as active storytellers who organize their multiple life experiences into coherent stories that they share with others in a continuing and inter-subjective process of meaning construction (Hermans and Hermans-Konopka 2010). Narration deals with discrepancy, with the violation of a norm, with what cannot be interpreted using canonic values. Any narration is characterized by the fact that something happened, an event that led to an unexpected and unforeseen condition. Any critical event can be considered as a condition of a biographical rupture, a violation of a canonic course that causes a crisis in the consolidated meaning system (Bruner 1990). As such, narrative implicitly activates a discontinuity in one’s system for assigning meaning to experience, Bforcing^ the subject to give a new meaning to the events (Freda et al. 2014). With specific reference to written narratives, numerous studies have shown that they play a key role in mediating the activation of thought processes (e.g., Park and Millora 2012). We believe that written narratives fulfill reflective functions when, in response to an event, the subject, interprets the discontinuity that the event generates in relation to the image of herself/himself in the contexts. When we speak of discontinuity we refer to a process of semiotic rupture (Zittoun 2006) that prevents the subject from using her/his previous systems of sense making to attribute a meaning to the event: the subject needs to Breturn^ reflectively on the experience to retrace a new continuity of meaning between subject and her/his actions (Freda et al. 2015a). According to a psychodynamic and semiotic model of the mind (e.g., Salvatore 2011), emotions play a fundamental role in sense-making and in the articulation of the relationship between continuity and discontinuity. Moreover, narration can be considered as a process of semiotic transformation of emotional sense making matrices: the construction of a text is a semiotic process that is generated by emotions while at the same time, symbolizing them by representing them as words (Freda 2011). When a subject avoids articulating the relationship between continuity and discontinuity, the narratives are characterized as a process of polysemic sense making: the experience is represented through meanings that generalize it, including the event within a wider emotional macro-category. It is as if the narrator were resorting to the same I-position to interpret different events, representing herself/himself and her/his relationships in the same way in order to maintain a stable sense of self. Let’s consider a narrative written by one of the students taking part in the INSTALL project: BOne of the critical moments was during the engineering exam, in which the teacher was late and, even though I had followed the course and studied the text recommended, he posed questions that were not related to the exam program. Beyond the negative feeling of not passing the exam, I was left with the impression that the professor and his emeritus assistant did not pay attention to me. The most critical thing for me is to see that all professors are very incompetent, they do not care about their students, they change every two years. Moreover, the degree course does not guarantee employability^.

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In this narrative the discontinuity generated by the event (not passing the examination) is avoided and student continues to use the same sense-making system to signify the experience. A process of emotional semiosis characterizes narrative. There is no difference between the professor of the examination and the broader category of professors. Moreover, the incompetence of professors addresses the whole field of experience and it is generalized to the degree course, which is recognized as incompetent in ensuring future employability to their students. On the contrary, when the subject interprets the discontinuity generated by the event she uses narrative as a semiotic process of asymmetrization of the emotional matrices that move the experience; this amounts to recognizing that the event did not happen because of factors unrelated to the individual, but that it was set in motion by the same emotions. The subject can recognize the variety of possible positions to take in the various experiences and give new meaning to the event by selecting a specific Iposition among the many possible. Another student says: BI always thought that university was just a place to waste time, a place populated by people with connections, by professors intent only on assessing students. The other day, after failing the examination of Developmental Psychology once again, I went to tell the examining professor that it was unfair I did not pass the examination again and to get some feedback. Unexpectedly, the professor was very welcoming, he asked me which contents I did not understand and explained many notions in a very professional way. Moreover, he invited me to try again, to not give up. It was a critical event because I realized that my failures were not due to my inability, but to my negligence, to my lack of motivation. I understand that I can achieve good results if I stop concentrating on stupid things, on what is not working at the university, and I began to study seriously!^. In this narrative, the critical event (the availability and expertise of the professor during the reception) Bforces^ the student to give a new meaning to his university experience. The emotional matrix connected to the generalized sense of inadequacy (of himself, professors, university), which had also oriented the student’s initial representation of a useless, assessment based and distancing university, is made asymmetric, processed and differentiated. This leads the student to be able to adopt a new I-Position, to give meaning to his role and his relation with the university context.

Narrative Coherence as a Semiotic Connection Process Generally, the ability to sustain a sense of continuity in one’s self image in spite of the disruptions caused by environmental variability is associated with the ability to narrate in a coherent manner (Angus and McLeod 2004). Many authors agree in assuming that the narratives of subjects with high levels of psychological well-being tend to be coherent, while those of people with psychological difficulties are noteworthy for being incoherent (e.g., Lysaker et al. 2005). This is not the appropriate time to delve into the long debate on narrative coherence (for a comprehensive discussion see Hyvärinen et al. 2010). Rather, we wish to emphasize that over the years different definitions of coherence have been used. The focus gradually shifted from a structural Aristotelian conception, according to which Bgood^ narrative is coherent because it presents a Bcorrect^ articulation of the form and

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content of the story (Polkinghorne 1988), to recent definitions that have highlighted internal consistency (Habermas and Bluck 2000), or the congruence between emotions and content (Friese and Wamboldt 2003), to mention just a few examples. Previous approaches to the study of narrative coherence tended to generalize specific concepts of narrative and coherence and to employ them to the wider field of human social practice and self-experience. Moreover, they examined people’s autobiographical stories in isolation from their discursive contexts and cultural life world. Consequently, the study of narrative coherence was more aimed at identifying the well-structured story with specific scenes, purposes, acts and protagonists, rather than analyzing the process of meaning construction produced in an inter-subjective and socio-cultural context (Hyvärinen et al. 2010). In our view, coherence, rather than being a dimension of narrative structure, is a process of meaning production, an organizing criterion of the text that connects various sides of a story, as well as the parts with the whole semiotically (Freda 2008). Coherence is a semiotic process aimed at expanding the meaning of the narrative in a teleological perspective. A coherent narrative contains the desire, projected into the future, to renew the sense of self in order to design a possible future. In this perspective, a coherent narrative have always some reflective potential and a coherent narrative takes the form of a process designed to make the implicit links which connect the various sides of a story and the parties with the whole explicit. Moreover, it aims to build new links: narrative becomes the holding in which the narrative texture can be recognized and thought out. In our opinion, the construction of narrative coherence may lead to a process and differentiate emotional dynamics that run through narrative. Moreover, it can trigger a process of expanding the meaning in which a highly polysemic symbolization, that tends to homogenize the events of life, can be articulated into levels of greater differentiation and to the recognition by the narrator of her/his role of producer of the meanings of the experience. Take the case of an underachieving student who tells of the many negative experiences Bsuffered^ during his university experience. Through the narration, she/he can semiotically connect the events within a broader texture, such as self-pity. But the narrator can also try to expand their meaning, and build new links enabling her/him to grasp the active role in guiding these experiences. The narrator can reach a reflection level and recognize that she/he has built a representation of herself/himself over time as an inept and incapable student. At the same time, the narrator can activate a reflectivity process recognizing that she/he has built a story of self-pity that is functional to not taking responsibility for her/his underachievement. In summary, according to our prospective, narrative is not coherent or incoherent because of structural criteria concerning the content, the protagonists or the phases a story is organized, but is articulated through different types of semiotic connection, each of which expresses in specific configuration of meaning. In other words, the meaning of the experience lies not in the content of the events, but in the process that connects them, in the way the wires of experience are intertwined (Freda 2008). In this sense, a possible perspective of analysis of the narrative coherence is to identify the types of semiotic connections that run through the text in order to understand the way in which the parts and the whole are connected. In this paper, we adopt Habermas and Bluck’s (2000) conceptualization of narrative coherence, according to which it is possible to find different types of coherence in

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narratives, by identifying the different semiotic connections. Specifically, temporal coherence is based on a chronological organizing criterion: narratives reflect an unvarying order with a beginning, a middle part and a conclusion. Temporal coherence refers to the ability to put the happenings of a single event into a sensible order. Autobiographical coherence, on the contrary, places different events within a wider autobiographical frame that recounts the sense that the narrator gives to her/his life. It refers to an implicit understanding of the typical events and their timing that go into the construction of a typical life story. Causal coherence connects life events through explanatory links that help to comprehend aspects of the self: the narrator Bexplains^ who is finding the same reasons to be the at the root of multiple events. Finally, thematic coherence is the extraction of a more general issue from the events, regarding a personal way of behaving within contexts. The narrator finds a recurrent theme that can be traced through different scenes in the story (Table 1). We believe the concept of coherence to be connected to that of narrative function. When we speak of narrative function we refer to the purpose or reason for which a narrative is produced: the function indicates what the narrative is for, its purpose, the goal that organizes and directs the narrator’s sense making process. Recently many discourse analysts (e.g., Marra and Holmes 2004; Ochs and Capps 2001; Thornborrow and Coates 2005) have begun to be concerned with narrative functions, and have proposed that the act of narrating may perform many different functions. For example, narratives can fulfill informative, descriptive, consensus building, or emotional evacuation functions (Marra and Holmes 2004). In particular, several studies have focused on the reflective functions of narratives which generally depict a speaker’s internal states or cognitive processes. Reflective narratives often seemed to serve a more personal, ‘making sense of reality’ objective for the speaker (Vàsquez 2007). Similarly, great attention has been paid to the study of agentive narratives (e.g., McAdams et al. 2006) which frequently consist of a series of narrated mental or physical actions. Little research, however, has been carried out on the link between coherence and narrative functions (e.g., Nygren and Blom 2001), although these have always been treated as distinct topics within narrative analysis (Mishler 1995). In our view, coherence is configured as a semiotic criterion of text organization that allows the narrative to fulfill its function, namely to achieve the purpose for which it was produced. In this paper we explore the relationship between coherence and the narrative functions of reflection, reflectivity and agency, and assume that there can be different

Table 1 Types of coherence and related semiotic connections Type of coherence

Types of semiotic connections

Temporal

Events are connected in a chronological order

Causal

Events are related to a subsequent change

Thematic

Events are linked by dominant thematic strands

Autobiographical

Events are placed within a wider autobiographical frame

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types of coherence that organize the narrative text and allow attainment of the agentive and reflective aims of the narrative.

The Context of the Research The research was conducted as part of the European project INSTALL (Innovative Solutions to Acquire Learning to Learn), funded by the European Union within the Erasmus Multilateral Project. The project, which ended in 2014, consisted in the implementation of group training courses aimed at underachieving university students and had the objective of promoting reflective processes that enable the implementation of agentive actions functional to achieving inclusion and active participation to the university experience.4 The INSTALL project involved a total of 198 students from different European countries; in Italy 77 students participated enrolled in different degree courses (psychology, engineering, law, economics, etc.). INSTALL made use of a narrative training method, the Narrative Mediation Path (NMP), which is articulated into seven weekly group meetings, each consisting of about 10 students. NMP uses narrative as a mediation device for the promotion of reflective processes and combines both individual and group levels of narrative, and the four narrative modes: Metaphoric, Iconographic, Writing, and Bodily in a single methodology.5 This paper does not analyze the four narrative modes, as we are interested in exploring the role of written narratives of potentially critical events in the activation of reflective and agentive processes. In particular, we will consider the narratives written by the Italian students during the writing mode, which requires each participant to write about a low, high and decisional turning point of their university experience.

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INSTALL effectiveness was measured in terms of increased reflectivity and agency. Specific evaluation tools were administered to students in different phases of the training (pre and post-test, follow up). Concerning the Italian sample, there is a significant increase in reflectivity and in performing different agentive actions at university and in one own’s life. Specifically, reflectivity was measured through an open-ended questionnaire while was measured using objective measures (number of exam passed, ECTS gained, GPA, etc.) and selfperceptions measures ability in managing conflicts at university, relational competences, clarification about university future goals, etc.) For more details about data relating the effectiveness of INSTALL project, see Freda (2014). 5 NMP is a multimodal method based on different modes and narrative media, each associated with specific sensorial channels (Pink 2011). The decision to adopt a multimodal approach is dictated by its potential for amplifying reflective processes (Dicks et al. 2006; Kress 2005). Each mode uses a particular medium and each student is asked to fill in all the narrative assignments/media: in the metaphorical mode proverbs and sayings are used and the student is asked to choose one that represents university experience (ie. as you make your bed so you must lie on it, yes, we can!). In the iconographic mode six cartoons depicting typical university life situations (enrollment, home study, etc.) are shown, and the students are asked to choose one of the characters depicted and to write what is thinking or feeling in a thought balloon. These are followed by the writing mode and then the bodily mode. During the latter, students are asked to create a sculpture in their university future using the bodies of all the participants. For more details on the analysis of other narrative modes, please refer to previously published literature (Freda 2014).

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Aims The research has two objectives. The first is to identify narratives with functions of reflection, reflectivity and agency and to explore their relationship with different types of narrative coherence and with specific modalities with which the relationship between continuity and discontinuity is articulated. The second objective is to understand which specific narrative assignments (low, high or decisional turning point) are better at introducing a discontinuity that the subject might interpret in reflective and/or agentive terms. This equates to analyzing which of the three assignments is most associated with narratives with functions of reflection, reflectivity and agency.

Methods Narrative Corpus The narrative corpus consists of 224 texts, including 78 Low Point, 72 High Point and 74 Decisional Turning Point. The narratives were written by 77 underachieving Italian university students that took part in INSTALL and were enrolled mainly in the third year (52 %) and second year (26 %) of their first degree; the remaining participants were students that were taking longer than usual to complete their degree (22 %). The average age of participants was 26.2 years. Tools The narratives of the low and high points were collected during the fourth meeting, while those relating to the decisional turning point during the fifth meeting.6 The three assignments were taken from the narrative interview model by McAdams (Josselson et al. 2007) and have been adapted to the university context. They require students to write about critical events (positive, negative, or decision/ change), potentially triggering a discontinuity in the sense making process of the university experience, by deliberately placing the student in a reflective context. In detail, the narrative assignments used in the research were: –

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Low point: BMany students talk about experiences that represent negative moments or events of their university life in which they felt negative emotions. We encourage you to choose a particular negative event in your university life and to write about what happened, when it occurred, who else was involved, what you felt and thought in that situation, why you see this as a negative event, and what this says about you and you being a university student …^.

During each meeting the same methodological sequence is followed: a narrative medium is presented (metaphors, vignettes, narrative points, sculpture), then each group member partakes in the narrative construction of the experience; third, a group-level narrative meta-discourse is elaborated from each member’s narration; four, each participant re-constructs the narrative experience. Each of the four methodological steps requires a few minutes. Specifically, during the writing mode, students were asked to write the texts in about 15–20 min. The other steps requires a mean time of 30 min each.

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–

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High point: BMany students talk about experiences that represent positive moments or events of their university life in which they felt positive emotions. We encourage you to choose a particular positive experience in your university life and write about what happened, when it took place, who else was involved, what you felt and thought in that situation, why you see this as a positive event and what this event says about you and you as a university student …^. Turning point: BLooking back on the university life of all students, it is possible to identify certain turning points, events in which a student has to make important choices and decisions. We invite you to identify a particular event of your university life in which you had to make a decision that resulted in a major change in how you considered yourself as a student. Please write about what happened, when it happened, who else was involved, what you felt and thought in that situation, why you consider this a turning point decision and what this moment says about you and of you being a university student …^.

Procedures A qualitative analysis of the narrative functions was carried out (e.g., Marra and Holmes 2004; Ochs and Capps 2001) which, in general, does not seek to identify narrative content, but can focus on the exploration on specific narrative functions, depending on the aims of the researcher. In this paper, we considered the narratives of low, high and Decisional turning point events described during the writing mode with the goal of identifying narrative functions of reflection, reflectivity and agency. We adopted the entire narratives as the unit of the analysis, that is, each low, high and Decisional turning point text. Specifically, to attain the work’s first objective, we used the definitions of reflection, reflectivity and agency, proposed in our conceptualization on reflective processes, as analytical criteria. We then investigated whether different forms of narrative coherence (causal, temporal, autobiographical, thematic) and a different way of interpreting the discontinuity generated by the event, were observable in the three types of narrative. To achieve the second goal of the study, we calculated the frequency of reflection, reflectivity and agency functions within the narratives of low, high and Decisional Turning Point assignments.

Results Overall, just over 50 % of the narrative corpus showed functions of reflection (29.46 %), reflectivity (10.27 %) and agency (12.5 %). The remaining corpus consisted of narratives presenting functions of a different nature (descriptive, evacuative, pre-reflective), but these will not be presented here because they are beyond the scope of this study.

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Narratives with a Function of Reflection We classified 29,46 % of the narratives (N=66) as having a reflection function. Low Point assignments achieved the highest rates of reflection narratives (39.4 %; N=26), followed by High Point (30.3 %; N=20) and Decisional Turning Point (30.3 %; N=20) assignments, with the same frequency. Below are two narratives in which a function of reflection is presented. They are exemplificative of how narrators set up as a process of subjectivation of the experience starting from the position that they acknowledge having taken within the university context. Through narratives with a function of reflection, the self can be thought of as an object of knowledge. Narrative 1 BThe first day of university. I was with my best friend and we were attending a lecture on the Institutions of Roman Law. I remember that the room was so full of people that we had sit on the floor. The professor began by introducing himself and when he began his explanation, I could not follow him. All the negative emotions that contrasted with the image of me as an exemplary student originated from that point. He spoke of very abstract concepts, he used very complicated words, the so-called legal jargon … that day I had the strange sensation that maybe I was in the wrong degree course, that I was not suited for that career, that I was not up to it. That first day of classes at university was certainly the worst, and it was the first time in my life that I felt incapable, and this day marked my college career far more than any exam I may have subsequently found challenging. This event tells me that I am a weak and insecure person^ (Low Point). Narrative 2 BSome months ago, I studied for only two days a very stupid exam. I am a presumptuous person, so I always believed the exams needed a short time to be studied. The first day I gave a brief reading to the books, the second day I listened to some mates while they were studying it, the third day I knew only some of the main contents. The professor was a very nice person, she asked me only three questions and I answered in a very confused way. I noticed that the professor was very disappointed by my performance but she was also very sad about it… I do not know why but she gave me 24/30. I was very surprised, and I accepted. I was excited at the beginning for my success and this event confirmed my presumption: I was able to get a good grade without studying because I was smart!. But when I left the classroom, I felt very stupid…empty… I was so sad… I was not the brilliant and intelligent student I believed I was before. For me this is a very critical event because it means that I am an irresponsible person^ (Low Point). The events described are recognized as critical, disrupting a balance that leads to the use of new processes to assign meaning to the experience. The discontinuity is attributed to the self, to one’s own way of being Bdiscovered^ through the narration of the event. Both students use the narrative to tell a change occurred in relation to a consolidated idea of themselves (B… contrasted with the image of me as an exemplary

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student …^; BI was not the brilliant and intelligent student I believed I was before …^). They also try to interpret the discontinuity generated by the event attributing it to a different way of being (BI am an insecure … irresponsible person …^). The events generates a semiotic rupture because narrators cannot refer to the previous sensemaking process and are Basked^ to give a new meaning to the Self. The narrators are using the medium to reflect themselves, to assign a new meaning to their way of being, which often goes beyond the boundaries of the formative self, or of one’s role as a student. The interpretation, however, is of a saturating nature: the narrator closes the story with the conclusion she/he reaches (i.e., BThis event tells me that I am a weak and insecure person^) that seems to outline an inter-contextual way of being. The narrators define themselves in general terms, referring to themselves not as students but as persons, and seaming to outline some of their traits in an a-contextual manner, and is unable to access any more narrative Bas if^, to deviate from this image of herself/himself. In this sense, the reflection narrative builds a new continuity of the self, which runs the risk of becoming rigid, due to the generalizing conclusion it reaches. It is as if, the narrator adopted a linear explanatory logic for the discontinuity in these narratives, as if in search of its causes, rather than of its reasons. The narratives show a causal and temporal coherence. The narrator organizes the events in a chronological sequence, defining a before and an after the story (BSome months ago…then…^), and seems able to articulate the relationship between times by adopting a non-linear temporal logic that often brings him back to the present time at the end of the story. Both narrators, in fact, consistently articulate the past tenses but they are also able to come to a conclusion in the present (Bit means I am^) and to find the consequences of past events in the actual representation of themselves. In terms of causal coherence, the narrator is able to link events or the specific times of events with an aspect of the self, that it is able to redefine by way of its explanatory power and the link it reveals. The events themselves become the key episodes to explain a current aspect of self, and the narrators are able to link them into causal chains. Narratives with a Function of Reflectivity We categorized 10.27 % (N=23) of the entire narrative corpus as having a function of reflectivity. These narratives were found almost entirely in the Low Point (82.6 %; N= 19), followed by the Decisional Turning Point (8.7 %; N=2) and High Point (8.7 %; N=2) with the same frequency. The following are two narratives with a function of reflectivity. The narrators activate a more complex semiotic process because they are now able to elaborate the effects of their actions, give a new meaning to a relational process and Blook^ at the positioning assumed in the university context. Narrative 3 BI have had no particular negative experiences that touched me personally. The only critical event I can link to my university career is my twin sister’s constant moving from one faculty to another other. Years ago we promised to earn the same title; however,

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ever since my enrollment in a law degree, we have been unable to coordinate. She fell behind, dropped out, enrolled a second time, changed again… and I resented it. This perpetual indecision disturbed me and led me to think, Bwhat if I reach the third year, and then…? But it never happened, I have always been very determined on the choice of faculty. Today I realize that I deliberately slowed down my second year at university in order to help my sister catch up with me^ (Low Point). Narrative 4 BA critical episode of my university life was not going to take an examination of psychoanalysis. It happened last year, during the summer session. I presented in the classroom, I arrived late and the professor had already made the call to students. I could easily give the name, but I did not. Although I was prepared, I decided not to take the exam. It is not easy to describe what I felt at that moment: I had some kind of panic attack: my head was spinning, I could not breathe, I felt like dying. I was alone, no one could help me. I managed to take control of myself, but I decided to leave the classroom. It had never happened before, I was always very sure of my exam preparation, of my abilities. I believe that the causes have been my negative thoughts, fear of not being able to pass the exam and of being judged. This can make it clear that, when it comes to put in discussion on something that I care, I tend to be afraid of being judged negatively and I do everything possible not to put myself in an evaluation situation^(Low Point). The event is acknowledged to be critical and the discontinuity is attributed not so much to factors inherent to a way of being, but as a relational and emotional dynamic that the narrator acknowledges to have enacted within the event. The narrator recognize they directed their relationships with the university context, not as a result of external causes, but because of internal reasons, desires or needs that drive their actions (i.e., desire not to differentiate from the twin sister; not to be evaluated negatively). The narrator interprets the relational processes in which she/he is involved, and reflects on the specific I-position that structured the relationship between the self and the context. Compared to the narratives with a function of reflection, in reflectivity narratives the relation between event and awareness is reversed. Whilst in the former, it is the event that permits an interpretation of the self, in the latter it is the awareness of the active role taken within the relationships that directs the event. The organizing criterion of the text, is temporal, as well as thematic: the narrators are able to recall and recite single events as story with beginnings, middles and endings, and they return to present to give a new meaning to their relations with the context. Moreover, they use events to extrapolate a more general issue which does not concern the predicative function of being (i.e., BI am an irresponsible person), but rather a way of relating oneself within contexts (i.e., BI tend to be afraid of being judged negatively and I do everything possible not to put myself in an evaluation situation^). The narrators try to explain their way of relating in terms of recurrent theme that can be traced through different episodes or scenes of the same episode. The thematic coherence reflects the narrators’ ability of reconstruction, imagination and synthesis. The narrator acknowledges having been the agens of the actions recounted in the event, whereas she had always considered herself/himself to have been acted upon by the event (i.e., BToday I realize that I deliberately slowed down my second year at

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university in order to help my sister catch up with me^). She therefore recognizes the reversibility of her/his actions and explains how she enacted an emotional dynamic. Therefore, the narratives with a reflectivity function present the dimension of agency reversibility, highlighting the link between reflective processes and agentive role. Narratives with a Function of Agency We found a function of agency in 12.5 % of the narratives (N=28). These narratives were mainly found in the Decisional Turning Point (85.71 %; N=24) and, to a lesser degree, in the High Point assignments (14.29 %; N=4), while they were absent from the Low Point assignments. Here are some examples of narratives with a function of agency. These narratives show how students are able to transform their reflective competences into the ability to make choices or acting in a goal-oriented manner. Narrative 5 BBachelor’s philosophy exam. I was with my friend T., we had studied together. I’ve always loved philosophy, though the event was not positive because of the topic, but because of how I dealt with the exam. I sat down and started to get anxious, as usual. I was saying nonsensical things, but at a certain point I paused. I decided to change the course of the events that normally overwhelmed me. I told the professor that I would start from the beginning. In that moment I felt secure. The exam went well, 28/ 30. What this event reveals about me is that I still have the strength hidden somewhere to be able to affect events in my university life. I now realize that my frequent tendency to isolate myself for fear of being judged negatively, has played a large role in my feeling of helplessness in the face of exams^ (Turning Point). Narrative 6 I’ll talk about the first episode that came to mind. It is a recent event, it happened last Monday morning. I went to talk with a teacher whose class I assiduously follow. Although it was clear to me why I had gone to her, I had some hesitation and talked about things that did not really interest me, as if I was waiting for her to tell me what to do. At a certain point, I got courage and I told her the real reason why I was there: I was asking her to be my professor for the thesis. She agreed, postponing, however, the issue until after the examination. I was pleased because I had finally taken a position on a decision that had dragged on for almost a year. I was also happy because the topic that after so many mental ruminations I had decided to propose was the same that the teacher, even before I asked, had proposed. At that moment I felt determined, able to defend my ideas and opinions. I always left the opportunity to decide for me to others, but now I will get the chance, if everything goes through, to change the way I behave, to finally dedicate myself to something that has not been imposed by other people but that I have actively chosen^ (Turning Point). The discontinuity generated by the event is recognized and attributed to a potential self: the narrator claims to understand that, in addition to an established image of

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herself/himself, others are possible that are activated because of the variability of situations. Their narratives, in fact, are about the alternatives the narrator has, and her/his ability to implement different actions that are appropriate to the contexts that have brought about the change. Even in these narratives, it is the awareness on the active role taken within relationships that directs the narrated event but, compared to the narratives with a function of reflectivity, the narrator is able to make a further connection between herself/himself and possible consequent actions to be implemented. It should be specified that, according to Caston’s modeling (2011), the three dimensions of agency occur in a non-linear and / or consecutive relationship and some of them are given particular emphasis, while the others are less preeminent. For example, some narratives describe the recognition of one’s possibilities for action, others focus on an account of the action, and others emphasize its suitability. In terms of narrative coherence, the texts have a temporal and autobiographical coherence. With regards to temporal coherence, these narratives also articulate time in complex ways, not necessarily in a linear or consecutive manner. Moreover, narrators seem able to plan some future actions or to orient narratives towards a future goal. In terms of autobiographical coherence, however, the narrator recounts a time of her/his university life as a variation within a more general autobiographical script, highlighting a change that has taken place or that is potentially feasible. Despite the overall focus of the narratives being on agency, there are also functions of reflection (BIn that moment I felt secure…a determined person^) and reflectivity (B…my frequent tendency to isolate myself for fear of being judged negatively, has played a large role in my feeling of helplessness in the face of exams^). The co-presence of the three functions highlights the interconnection between the construct of agency and the different levels of the reflective process: to implement agentive actions the subject needs access to a renewed awareness of herself/himself and the way of relating.

Discussion With reference to the first objective, the analysis showed that over 50 % of the narrative corpus showed functions of reflection (29.46 %), reflectivity (10.27 %) and agency (12.5 %). Data highlight the important role played by written narratives in the activation of reflective and agentive process. Students were able to use the narrative device to achieve more complex levels of reflective thinking: while in the narratives with a function of reflection students can give a new meaning to the Self, in those of reflexivity they go further and try to reflect on the relational dynamics enacted during the event; in narratives with agentive functions, students are able to implement transformative actions as a result of reflection and reflexivity process. The varying complexity of the narratives analyzed in this study seems to be related to the different way in which the narrator deals with the relationship between continuity and discontinuity, and with different types of narrative coherence. As we explained in the theoretical part of the paper, each narrative potentially activates a discontinuity in the sense-making system of subjects, but, in order to reach reflective process, it is necessary that the subject tries to interpret the discontinuity generated by the event giving a new meaning and reaching a new adaptive continuity.

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Otherwise, when a subject avoids articulating the relationship between continuity and discontinuity, the narratives are characterized as a polysemic process of sense making, the experience is represented through meanings that generalize it. In the narratives analyzed, however, the narrator provides an interpretation of discontinuity generated by the event and attributes such a discontinuity to the self (reflection), to specific relational modalities (reflectivity) or to possible Bselves^ capable of agentive actions (agency). The three categories of narrative are also differentiated by of the type of coherence: temporal and causal coherence are associated with narratives with a function of reflection, temporal and thematic coherence with narratives with a function of reflectivity, and temporal and autobiographical coherence, with a function of agency. These data informed us about an interesting bi-univocal relation between different types of narrative functions and coherence. Coherence is an organizing criterion of narrative texts, that assumes different attributes depending on the aims of the narrator, or the function of the narrative. At the same time, different levels of reflective processes request various types of semiotic connections between the sides and the whole. Another interesting finding is related to temporal coherence. Data show that the three typologies of narrative function are always associated by temporal coherence. This is in line with some contributions that have shown, within the debate on the issue of narrative coherence, that the concept of time and its narrative articulation is a widespread feature of many types of Badvanced^ narratives (e.g., Brockmeier 2004). It is like saying that an early form of semiotic connection is temporal and without it the narrator cannot access the more complex forms of connections. The narrators first need to reorganize their story in chronological terms and then she/he can access other types of semiotic connections between the parts and the whole. Moreover, data show that the same temporal coherence must not be conceived as a rigid and linear succession of events (from the past to the present to the future). Rather temporality seems to take on a cyclic configuration (Brockmeier 2000): the narratives with a function of reflection and reflectivity are articulated through the revival of past events reviewed in the light of present. In narratives with a function of agency, however, temporality becomes circular (Brockmeier 2000): the narrative is built around events in the past but is reinterpreted in light of the present, according to a teleological process of retrospection that orients narrative toward a future goal. We have also shown how narrative with the function of reflection, as opposed to reflective or agentive texts, is likely to homogenize the field of experience resorting to a logic that defines the self. We believe that the increased frequency of narratives with functions of reflection is to be attributed to its lower degree of complexity and its effort to generate a new continuity that protects from the Brisk^ of further differentiations in the self. The search for continuity is in fact, a need of every human being. It contains some much more reassuring aspects than when a subject is called on to reinterpret herself/himself in response to a change in circumstances, and to continually undermine her/his sense making processes. It should be noted, however, that we do not think that narratives with reflection functions are dysfunctional, the issue we want to centralize is the risk of their irreversibility, which can inhibit the activation of thought processes of a more complex nature. For example, if we consider the use of such narratives in the context of intervention, they become useful in exploring the specific I-position through

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which a subject reads her/his experiences, and are considered required in the activation of re-positioning during the intervention. With reference to the second objective, the analysis showed that all media are useful in promoting reflective / agentive functions and that it is not possible to find a univocal relationship between medium type and narrative functions. However, frequently emerging associations allow us to state that some media allow a greater interaction with the criticality of the event and to interpret it using new signification. For example, there is clearly a greater frequency of reflectivity function in the Low Point narratives. We know from the literature (McAdams et al. 2008) that the low point, rather than the high point, has a greater potential for promoting sense-making processes, identifying common patterns that highlight analogs, in other words: typically implemented repetitive relational sequences. We also assume that the subject recognizes the active role she assumes more easily when she describes negatively perceived passiveness. She becomes agens because she comes to terms with her/his impotence and can talk about herself/himself as agendum of her/his actions. In the case of narratives with functions of agency, these were most frequently found in the Decisional Turning Point assignments. In line with other studies (e.g., Bruner 1990; Mezirow 1990; Josselson et al. 2007), we believe that this assignment, more than the other two, sets the subject in a context that is more conducive to recounting agentive choices. However, its effectiveness is also due to the fact that the Decisional turning point plays a role of synthesis between dialectical polarities (positive and negative) introduced by the two previous points, which allow one to re interpret experiences with a greater propensity to action. The High Point proves less important. Unlike the previous assignments, it assumes a role of consolidation of the self’s continuity rather than explaining elements of rupture. However, it can create a Breassuring^ context for the student, implicitly conveying the idea that their university experience can be reinterpreted in a positive manner and that there are resources with which to activate a change.

Conclusions This study has some theoretical implications such as some implications for the intervention with underachieving college students. From a theoretical point of view, data allow us to contribute to understanding about the different dimensions of reflective process. We know from the literature, that reflection is not a unique construct but it may be conceived developmentally, namely constituted by different levels of complexity. At the same time, the reflective process is connected with the ability to be an agent, an intentional being acting toward a goal. This study allows us to make some hypotheses about a specific configuration/structure of reflective processes that take the shape of a matryoshka of increasingly complex levels of sense-making. While narratives with a function of reflection do not present reflectivity or agentive passages, narratives with a function of reflectivity contains some passages of reflection, such as narratives with a function of agency present some reflection and reflectivity functions. Moreover, only a few studies have analyzed the relation between narrative functions and coherence. This study highlights the need to consider coherence, not as a single

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construct, but as an organizing criterion of narrative texts, that assumes different attributes depending on the aims of the narrator, or the function of the narrative. According to a semiotic perspective, the study of narrative coherence may be centered on identifying the different types of semiotic connections, rather than on the structural analysis on the contents or protagonists of stories. This study has also some implication for the intervention in the field of Higher Education. Data inform us on the important role of written narrative of critical events for the promotion of reflective / agentive processes with underachieving students. We know that many students were able to turn on different levels of reflective and agentive process through the use of narrative devices. Overall, the data inform us about the need to adopt narrative devices for interventions with underachieving college students at risk of dropping out and exclusion from university. We know that underachievement is a growing phenomena in Europe: in the universities participating in INSTALL up to 35 % of enrolled students are underachievers and all the students involved in this study were underachievers and at risk of being excluded from university. We know from the literature that underachieving students, often have reflective difficulties and consequent problems in acting at university strategically (e.g., Padykula and Horwitz 2011). In this scenario, there is a need to develop innovative approaches and devices to support students’ acquisition of reflective competences in order to have an impact on their academic performance. Narrative methods are a useful tool in intervention settings in order to reach these aims; moreover, the study of narrative functions promoted by specific narrative assignments may contribute in improving knowledge about how to promote reflective process with students at risk of drop-out. In agreement with other contributions (e.g., Morton and Campbell 2007), we think it would be worthwhile to include within the context of Higher Education, curricular or extracurricular activities focused on reflective writing about events related to one’s university history that might facilitate the re-positioning of students. The adoption of these methods it is advantageous for those underachieving students that risk dropping-out, for which narrative can be a functional tool for reflecting on the limitations that hinder academic productivity, and the resources on which to invest in order to implement actions that lead to academic inclusion. The study has some limitations. For example, we are unable to analyze the developmental function of narrative devices. In other words, we are unable to grasp the assembling mechanism of ever more complex reflective narrative functions over time. In the future, it would be interesting to test whether the same subjects always assume the same I-position during the writing mode, or if they Bmake progress^ in their ability to adopt increasingly differentiating narrative functions. A further limitation lies in not being able to compare the reflective processes promoted by narrative writing with those produced by the inter-subjective device of group narrative, used in the INSTALL project. Similarly, only deliberately induced, potentially critical events whose assignment was highly structured were considered in the research. In this regard, future research will focus on the analysis of the transcripts of the meetings in order to analyze the relationship between individual narratives and their processing in the inter-group discourse, as well as exploring the relationship between different levels of reflective process and critical events that emerge naturally during intervention.

Integr Psych Behav Acknowledgments The European Commission supported this work [Grant Agreement 2011- 4040 Project 517750-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-ESIN]. We acknowledge all the researches, trainers and students who contributed to the implementation of the INSTALL Project. Especially thanks to Dan Stănescu for the Rumanian University NSPSA, Josè GonzalezMonteagudo for the University of Seville (US), and Una Crowley for the Irish University NUIM.

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