Johanna Annala

Online community environment promoting engagement in higher education

Online community environment promoting engagement in higher education This paper illustrates how university students describe the benefits and challenges of online community environment (OCE) in promoting engagement in university studies. The sociocultural framework allows gaining understanding of the engagement in learning processes as well as the collaborative dimensions of OCE in developing higher education in the 21th century. The study was conducted by using the method of empathy-based stories. The data were collected from two student groups representing samples of presumed forerunners of online and offline environments. The results revealed the importance of multidimensionality of engagement, with interaction among and between students and staff. OCE was seen beneficial in strengthening the sense of belonging to the university, in networking and in enhancing active citizenship. The students saw the academic and social world overlapping. OCE was not seen as an alternative but supplementary to offline community, being beneficial for learning and extracurricular activities. The results represent four overlapping spheres that reflect the potentials of OCE in enhancing engagement in studies: supportive reciprocity, collegial contribution, growth of expertise and shared direction. In order to enhance engagement in university studies via OCE, the results suggest that the focus should be on the sociocultural practices and pedagogical processes.

Communities of Practice in Higher Education: Contradictory Narratives of a University-Wide Curriculum Reform.

This article presents an analysis of the experiences of scholars in a university-wide curriculum reform in one public research university. The focus is on the intentions and dynamics that shape the curriculum process in the local communities of practice (CoPs). The data, comprising interviews with 25 scholars, are examined as experience-centred narratives of curriculum change. Two distinct types of narrative – dialogical and reproductive – are found to reflect how the curriculum change was negotiated. In further analysis, Wengers dimensions of CoPs, namely, mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire, are used as a conceptual framework to identify the intentions and dynamics behind the narratives. The following dimensions emerged: (1) intending to cross borders versus maintaining prevailing traditions and positions; (2) attempting to find shared goals versus delaying or discontinuing the process and (3) having enough curiosity to familiarise oneself with the unfamiliar versus deprecating and rejecting it.

Millennial generation preservice teachers inspiring the design of teacher education

Abstract The article presents an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) to preservice teachers’ experiences of their current secondary teacher education programme (STEP) in Finland. The focus of the study is the millennial generation cohort in which new teachers comprise a key group to be studied because they will contribute to the future of education. Thirteen preservice teachers participated in the study. Their experiences are interpreted through the lenses of generation theory and contemporary teacher education research. The findings include three phenomenological themes that are core elements of STEP: time balance, reciprocal participation and meaningfulness. These themes are discussed and suggestions made for ways to transform teacher education to make it more relevant.

The Role of Curriculum Theory in Contemporary Higher Education Research and Practice

In the light of recent debates on the possible issues in curriculum studies, formulated particularly in the field of sociology of education, this chapter discusses the role and the importance of curriculum theories in higher education. Focusing on the historical and the conceptual roots of curriculum theory approaches, the argument is that the dispute and the separation between normative and critical roles of curriculum theories are important to overcome in today’s competency-based and outcome-focused context of higher education. Basil Bernstein’s ideas on the vital role of knowledge are discussed in relation to the origins of the so-called crisis in curriculum theories. It is suggested that in the debate between normative and critical curriculum approaches, a danger is that the focus on the educational importance of curricula may be neglected and silenced in the midst of the pressure to renew curricula in higher education.