Celina McEwen

Developing a Critical Professional Identity

In this chapter we discuss the formation of critical professional identity through practice-based education (PBE). We use PBE as the umbrella term to describe a set of educational work-integrated practices that emphasise a situated and contextualised approach to professional education in universities. We argue that it is imperative to explore identity when becoming a professional, because it enhances the professional socialisation process and strengthens agency in practice.

Carving Out the Territory for Educating the Deliberate Professional

In this early part of the twenty-first century, we are witnessing dramatic changes to the university education landscape. Student cohorts are increasingly more diverse and globally mobile, the advent of technology-mediated learning and teaching is changing the way we used to teach and learn, the demands for their greater economic relevance together with stronger graduate employability are knowingly, or not, separating universities’ dual obligations of education for competent technicians and education for moral professionals. Together, these neoliberal developments threaten to erode the socially responsible pedagogical project of university education. In this chapter, the authors explore what might be required of university education to produce professionals for a society that is increasingly complex and rapidly changing. What does it take for students to engage with the complexities, ambiguities, diversity and uncertainties of emerging professional practices? Opportunities are identified that allow learners and educators to take ownership of and some sense of control over their emerging practice within uncertain and rapidly changing times. An argument is presented for a pedagogy of deliberateness: A new learning and teaching framework for university education, in general, and workplace learning, in particular. This new concept offers a framework to redress the imbalance from technical, instrumental learning towards moral, autonomous, democratic and consequential learning that produces not only competent technicians, but also educates deliberate professionals who are thoughtful, courageous and morally responsible actors who strive to improve the way things are.

Critical Thinking for Future Practice: Learning to Question

Critical thinking can be used for many different purposes. For example, it can be used to develop technico-instrumental, specialized expert knowledge, and it can also be used to remind learners and teachers that specialized knowledge and instrumental skills have limits and need to be complemented by other, broader sets of skills. In this chapter, drawing on the critical theory of Habermas and other critical theorists, we discuss the latter purpose of critical thinking.

Scoping the Deliberate Professional

This chapter outlines the origins of the concept of deliberate professional and frames it within a discussion of notions of ‘professional’, ‘deliberate’ and ‘practice’. We suggest reasons why the ‘deliberate professional’ offers a way of redressing the balance of possibilities away from exclusive economic values towards more encompassing socio-cultural values in the globalised context of university education. We then discuss how our concept of educating the deliberate professional can be translated within the wider context of social and professional practice theories, critical university studies and critical pedagogy, into a pedagogy of deliberateness. We conclude by drawing out connections with the other discussions included in the book.

Change and Continuity in Applied Theatre: Lessons Learnt from ‘the Longest Night’

This chapter presents an examination of how participation in applied theatre projects can engender change and continuity. Using Bourdieu’s field theory, I discuss the tensions that exist between the rhetoric of social change and outcomes for participants in applied theatre projects. In particular, I draw on findings from a longitudinal study of an exemplary Australian applied theatre project, The Longest Night. This study revealed that, though participants experienced some immediate change, the longer-term outcomes resembled permanence and gave an overwhelming sense of continuity. I argue that this is because this set of practices indirectly limits change as practitioners operate within a system that tends to contain their practice, product and impact, as well as reproduce legitimised social and cultural values and norms.

Learning in hybrid spaces: Designing a mobile technology capacity building framework for workplace learning

Abstract In this chapter, we present the Mobile Technology Capacity Building (MTCB) Framework, designed to enhance students’ appropriate use of personal mobile devices (PMDs) in workplace learning (WPL). WPL is a concept that denotes students’ learning that occurs in workplaces as part of their university curriculum. The workplace provides an environment for university students where learning and working and theory and practice are entwined. As such, WPL is an in-between or hybrid space where traditional roles, identities, and cultures are fluid and in transition. In the 21st century, where PMDs are more and more intricately interwoven into everyday personal, educational, and professional practices, learning with mobile technology offers new opportunities and possibilities to enhance WPL. The MTCB Framework for WPL focuses on cultivating agency and thoughtful consideration for practice contexts. Its development is underpinned by three sets of theoretical ideas: agentic learning, activity-centered learning design, and the entanglement of technology, learning, and work. Its design also draws on empirical data derived from surveys and interviews from 214 participants, including students, academics, and workplace educators that highlight the importance of considering workplace cultures. We conclude that the MTCB Framework addresses an urgent need for all stakeholders in WPL to build their capacity to use mobile technology effectively to contribute to enhancing WPL. Without a shared understanding of the role of mobile technology in WPL, it will remain difficult for students to make the most of the learning opportunities afforded by the use of PMDs in WPL.

Educating Deliberate Professionals: Beyond Reflective and Deliberative Practitioners

With this chapter, we highlight contributing authors’ insights into what it means to educate the deliberate professional. We concisely discuss the authors’ common understanding that there is a need to reconcile critique (thinking), participation (doing) and moral responsibility (relating to others) in professional practice and professional education. We also review the book’s main threads: the critique of the current context within which professional education is delivered at university and professional practice is carried out in workplaces; and the alternative view of a professional practice and professional education that addresses and redresses the imbalance between technical know-how, moral stance and collective action. We conclude by considering the challenges and possibilities that lie ahead in further implementing this concept, especially at organisational and societal levels.