Ola Lindberg

Competence in professional practice: A practice theory analysis of police and doctors:

This article outlines a theoretical understanding of competence as the inferred potential for desirable activity within a professional practice. By employing the concept of ‘teleoaffective structure’ as developed in Schatzki’s practice theory, our study investigates how notions of competent and excellent professionals are defined in two separate practices in which highly qualified professionals share formal qualifications. The study is comparative and based on a total of 39 interviews carried out in the Swedish National Police Counter-Terrorist Unit (police) and with recruiters of medical interns (doctors) in Swedish healthcare. Results indicate that, despite obvious differences between the professional groups in the study, some remarkable similarities are apparent in what are regarded as high levels of competence. Surprisingly, technical expertise was downplayed as an indicator of high levels of competence in both practices. The professional groups emphasized flexibility, drive/ambition and social competence, as well as the ability to balance between being highly capable and being humble before others, including other groups of professionals as characteristics of excellence. Based on the results, the authors discuss a ‘logic of excellence’ that can be used to describe mechanisms of competence differentiation in professional practices from a practice theory perspective.

Gatekeepers of a profession? Employability as capital in the recruitment of medical interns

The present article concerns employability in physicians’ professional practice. Drawing on interview data from recruiters at 21 Swedish hospitals with the most applicants for a medical internship, the article seeks to develop a theory of what constitutes an ‘employable medical intern’. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of capital, two forms of capital were constructed using interview data, orientation toward performance and orientation toward human relations. Orientation toward performance concerns the applicants’ drive and ambition, while orientation toward human relations concerns the applicants’ social competence, primarily as co-workers. The study suggests that the most highly employable applicants successfully prove that they possess both forms of capital. These forms of capital are thought to involve sorting mechanisms in the process of recruitment as recruiters infer the desired attributes of applicants from a written application and a job interview. The concept of employability, as well as implications for professional socialisation, is examined and discussed in light of the findings.

Police leaders make poor change agents: leadership practice in the face of a major organisational reform

ABSTRACT The present article examines expectations on police leaders during major organisational change pressures. Based on policy analysis and interviews with 28 police leaders, the paper seeks to answer the following question: How do police leaders’ accounts of leadership practice relate to expectations from higher ranks (above), subordinates (below) and police policies concerning leadership? The results of the paper indicate that police leaders are squeezed into a position between demands from above (top management) and demands from below (lower organisational tiers). Some of the perceived expectations and practiced leadership actions are also gendered. For example, women feel the need to prove their credibility as leaders and to act in both a caring and daring manner, something that is not evident for male police leaders. Furthermore, the material indicates a considerable mismatch between the different sets of demands expressed in interviews and expectations regarding leadership expressed in police policy discourse, wherein core values and leadership criteria are articulated. In conclusion, the findings indicate a discrepancy between official rhetoric and practice, where the leadership constructed at a policy level deviates from leadership constructed in practice. This discrepancy is argued to represent an effective barrier for change initiatives, and hence the idea that police leaders will be able to function as agents of change promoting organisational reform is highly uncertain.

Same but different? An examination of Swedish upper secondary school teachers’ and students’ views and use of ICT in education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine Swedish upper secondary school teachers’ and students’views and use of ICT in education.Design/methodology/approach – In total, 25 individual teach ...

Students’ voices about information and communication technology in upper secondary schools

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore upper secondary school students’ voices on how information and communication technology (ICT) could structure and support their everyday activities ...

Police Leadership Practice in Times of Uncertainty and Organisational Turmoil

Resonating on the themes of globalisation, change and uncertainty, the following chapter offers a critical discussion regarding the role of leadership in occupational and organisational ambitions of renewal. An often espoused image of leaders in times of change is that of a guide showing the way for a work-group or organisation on a journey towards the desired future state of being (cf. Gill, 2002).

Digitalise and capitalise? : Teachers’ self-understanding in 21st-century teaching contexts

ABSTRACT The digitalisation of educational contexts has changed the practice of teaching and learning. In this, teachers have a key role in enacting digital technologies for this purpose and have different opportunities to do so. This article explores how digitalisation can affect teachers by focusing on: (a) how teachers manage to capitalise on digitalisation; and (b) how digitalisation can affect and reconstruct their self-understanding. Two teacher colleagues of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the same teaching team are interviewed and observed. Drawing on the interplay between self-image, self-esteem, job motivation, and task perception, it is shown how the teachers’ self-understanding is played out and changes due to the call for digitalisation. Whereas one of the teachers has been able to capitalise on digitalisation in a way that has been beneficial both professionally and personally, the other has felt pressurised by it. A conclusion is that a limited or extended use of digital technologies should not be taken as an indicator of teaching quality.

Police bodies and police minds: professional learning through bodily practices of sport participation*

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature concerned with bodily perspectives on professional learning by reporting on a study of Swedish police officers’ sport participation as a form of occupational learning. The study seeks to answer how ideals of work practice and sport participation intersect, how professional learning is channelled through sport participation, and how such bodily practices might have excluding effects on professional participation. Using a practice theory framework, the Schatzkian concept of teleoaffective structure guides the analysis. Sixteen interviews were conducted with police officers who practice police sports. The analysis targeted symbolic manifestations of teleoaffectivity, and the findings indicate five overlapping ideals between sport and police practice. In addition, one police specific ideal was constructed. Based on these findings, we discuss how professionals learn by participation in practices not directly related to the work in question, and how such learning includes and excludes from participation.

Graduate Employability as Social Suitability: Professional Competence from a Practice Theory Perspective

What makes an employer decide in a graduate’s favour when applying for a new job? This question is urgent and important for many graduates who are hoping to get the upper hand in competing for their first job, yet research can tell us little about how to answer it. In an effort to inquire into this question, the following chapter outlines an understanding of graduate employability based in workplace practices. Practice theory is an umbrella term for a number of theories and concepts focusing on the importance of activity for understanding the social world. ‘The practice turn’ in social science seeks to bridge some problematic dualisms (such as actor-structure) in other theories. In the version of practice theory that will be presented below, we draw upon the theorisation presented by Theodore Schatzki (2001, 2005) and our previous work within this framework (Lindberg and Rantatalo 2015), in an effort to translate practice-theory concepts into research tools for examining graduate employability.