Miriam Zukas

Preparedness is not enough: understanding transitions as critically intensive learning periods

Medical Education 2011: 45: 1006–1015

Making a mess of academic work: experience, purpose and identity

Within the policy discourse of academic work, teaching, research and administration are seen as discrete elements of practice. We explore the assumptions evident in this ‘official story’ and contrast it with the messy experience of academic work, drawing upon empirical studies and conceptualisations from our own research and from recent literature. We propose that purposive disciplinary practice across time and space is inextricably entangled with and fundamental to academic experience and identity; the fabrications of managerialism, such as the workload allocation form, fragment this experience and attempt to reclassify purposes and conceptualisations of academic work. Using actor-network theory as an analytical tool, we explore the gap between official and unofficial stories, attempting to reframe the relationship between discipline and its various manifestations in academic practice and suggesting a research agenda for investigating academic work.

A Bourdieusian Approach to Understanding Employability: Becoming a "Fish in Water".

It is assumed in the current policy environment that higher education should lead to graduate employability, although understandings of employability are generally limited. In this paper, we discuss issues relating to graduate employability with reference to a case study of an information technology (IT) student progressing to a graduate role in the IT industry. Our analysis uses Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’, habitus, field and capital, to discuss the importance to graduate employability of individual positions and dispositions, workplace culture and organisation, and the social contacts developed as part of undergraduate life. We argue that employability needs to be understood in relational terms. In particular, the value of skills and knowledge depends on the work and workplace to which a graduate progresses. Similarly, employable graduates need a ‘feel for the game’.

Learning to Practise, Practising to Learn: Doctors’ Transitions to New Levels of Responsibility

This chapter draws on a collective case study of doctors’ learning in transition to show that different ways of explaining learning in practice (e.g. situated learning and learning cultures) cannot fully account for what happens when doctors make these transitions. We develop Hodkinson, Biesta and James’ (Vocations and Learning 1:27–47, 2008) theories of learning cultures and cultural theories of learning in two ways to help us understand learning in transition. First, we draw on Thevenot’s (Pragmatic regimes governing the engagement with the world. In Schatzki TR, Knorr Cetina K, von Savigny E (eds) The practice turn in contemporary theory. Routledge, London, 2001) notion of pragmatic regimes of practice to show how most approaches to doctors’ learning focus on the public regimes of justification and regular action; transitions, however, always involve regimes of familiarity which are usually ignored in theorising their learning. Second, we introduce our notion of doctors’ transitions as critically intensive learning periods, in order to explain the interrelationships between learning, practice and regimes of familiarity. We ground our discussion in three scenarios to illustrate how practice always involves the socio-material world. We examine the theoretical and practical implications, particularly in respect of learning local practices or, as Thevenot would say, learning regimes of familiarity.

Pedagogic Learning in the Pedagogic Workplace: Educators’ Lifelong Learning and Learning Futures

Abstract Pedagogic learning – that is, teachers’ ongoing learning about pedagogy – is both about pre-entry learning and an ongoing workplace learning issue. This paper focuses on the learning of teachers in postcompulsory education and training, although it recognises that many of the issues are common with educators in other parts of the educational system. Educators are conceptualised as workers who, of necessity, are constantly engaged in workplace learning, be it in the corridors, the staffroom or the classroom of that workplace. Three popular discourses of the ‘good teacher’ and their implications for educators’ learning are examined: the teacher as charismatic subject, as competent craftsperson and as reflective practitioner. A number of challenges to these discourses are raised by conceptualising teaching as ongoing socially situated practice (Lave, 1996): issues of power and purpose; questions of compliance and resistance; a view that pedagogic acts are acts of identity construction; and a perspective on pedagogy and knowledge construction. It is suggested that such an understanding of teachers’ workplace learning is essential in considering Learning Futures.

Student vocational teachers: the significance of individual positions in workplace learning

Abstract In most initial teacher preparation (ITP) programmes, learning in teaching placements is considered to be an important component for providing workplace learning experiences to develop the skills of being a teacher. This paper is based on a bigger qualitative study which explored the learning experiences of a group of in-service student vocational teachers prior to and during their one-year ITP programme in Brunei. The study examined these student teachers’ dispositions to learning as revealed through their experiences on different placements during their training. The findings of this paper highlight the importance of the student vocational teachers’ roles and positions relative to their teaching placements. Theoretically, the findings also extend Bourdieu’s thinking, where existing cultural capital in the form of subject knowledge which is valued in one context does not necessarily help the learning of individuals in becoming a vocational teacher in another context. In addition, the paper argues for a need to reconceptualise in-service teacher education, more specifically, the workplace learning aspect. Lastly, it concludes with recommendations to support these student teachers in their placements through creating more expansive learning environments.

Regulating the Professionals: Critical Perspectives on Learning in Continuing Professional Development Frameworks

An early version of this paper was given as a keynote lecture, entitled Integrating learning and practice: An alternative approach, to the Association for Dental Education in Europe, Helsinki, Finland, August 2009.

Learning Academic Work Practices in Discipline, Department and University.

Purpose This paper aims to examine the everyday practices of academic work in social science to understand better academics’ learning. It also asks how academic work is enacted in relation to the discipline, department and university, taking temporality as its starting point. Design/methodology/approach The study sought to trace academic activities in practice. Within three universities, 14 academics were work-shadowed; social, material, technological, pedagogic and symbolic actors were observed and where possible connections and interactions were traced (including beyond the institution). This paper reports on a subset of the study: the academic practices of four early-career academics in one discipline are analysed. Findings Email emerges as a core academic practice and an important pedagogic actor for early career academics in relation to the department and university. Much academic work is “work about the work”, both in and outside official work time. Other pedagogic actors include conferences, networks and external Web identities. Disciplinary work happens outside official work time for the most part and requires time to be available. Disciplinary learning is therefore only afforded to some, resulting in structural disadvantage. Originality/value By tracing non-human and human actors, it has emerged that the department and university, rather than the discipline, are most important in composing everyday work practices. A sociomaterial approach enables researchers to better understand the “black box” of everyday academic practice. Such an approach holds the promise of better support for academics in negotiating the demands of discipline, department and university without overwork and systemic exploitation.

Unravelling the story of a milestone text, Tales from the Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education

NOD MILLER University of East London, UK PAUL ARMSTRONG University of Leeds, UK RONALD M. CERVERO University of Georgia, USA RICHARD EDWARDS University of Stirling, Scotland DAVID GOSLING University of East London, UK ELISABETH R. HAYES University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA JUANITA JOHNSON-BAILEY University of Georgia, USA LINDEN WEST Christ Church University College/University of East London, UK ARTHUR L. WILSON Cornell University, USA MIRIAM ZUKAS University of Leeds, UK

Course Team Fictions: Living with the Politics of Legitimating Research

This vignette takes the form of a fictional dialogue at a Masters in Clinical Education course team meeting whose members are facing the challenge of preparing students for ethical review of their proposed research. Depending on the focus of and context for their research, some students are required to submit research proposals to National Health Service ethics committees for their approval. The vignette explores through conversation the multiple perspectives within the team as to the warrant for research. By drawing loosely on examples from the field, it also considers the effect of ethical approval procedures on what is and is not legitimate educational research.