Tone Dyrdal Solbrekke

Bringing professional responsibility back in

Research on how higher education institutions work with professional formation indicates that insufficient attention is currently paid to issues of professional responsibility and ethics. In the light of such findings, there is increasing concern about issues related to learning professional responsibility. This article concentrates on different meanings given to professional responsibility. Drawing on the idea of ‘social trustee professionalism’ and the recent rhetoric and practices of new public management, the concept of professional responsibility is deconstructed and discussed in light of the types of logic and implications generated by the use of the concepts of professional ‘responsibility’ and ‘accountability’. The analysis indicates that mechanisms of accountability seem to be ‘triumphing’ over responsibility in today’s governance systems. It is argued that we need to ‘bring professional responsibility back in’, to ensure that moral and societal responsibilities become the driving force for professionals while accounting systems support the overall purpose of professional work.

Professional responsibility as legitimate compromises – from communities of education to communities of work

This article focuses on the formation of conceptions of professional responsibility. Perspectives developed by the moral philosopher Larry May, supported by the social theory of learning, constitute the main analytical tools for the interpretation of law and psychology students’ conceptions of professional responsibility by the end of higher education and after a year at work. Consistent with May, individual conceptions of professional responsibility are understood as legitimate compromises. The findings indicate that, although conceptions of professional responsibility do not change profoundly in the transition from education to work, they are renegotiated in work contexts. Such a result invites teachers in professional programmes to reflect upon how students may be encouraged to develop a moral awareness of professional responsibility robust enough to meet the complex challenges in working life.

The role of academic developers in transforming Bologna regulations to a national and institutional context

Academic developers (ADs) often participate in the implementation of programmes or reforms in higher education. Sometimes they agree with these and sometimes they disagree. This paper discusses possible agentic positions during a genuine policy implementation – the National Qualification Framework at a Norwegian university. Through reflexive interpretation, and by applying concepts from ‘discursive institutionalism’ the process of implementation from the national level to university departments is described and analysed. The actions and arguments of the ADs involved in the process are presented and their educational rationale is described. The ADs’ agency is discussed through educational and political science concepts and in light of power and of a tension between two competing world views: professional accountability and professional responsibility.

Curriculum Trends in European Higher Education: The Pursuit of the Humboldtian University Ideas

In this chapter we focus on how the restructuring of European higher education is manifested in curriculum policies with particular interest in the consequences for universities. By critically analyzing some core European higher education policy documents, we discuss how initiatives taken by the European Union (EU) and the Bologna Process may influence universities and challenge the Humboldtian ideas traditionally defining most European research-oriented universities. We concentrate the analysis and discussion on implications for educational purposes, educational knowledge and the notion of students. The analysis shows that the new architecture of European higher education implies new models of management and governance which implies new forms of controlling institutional processes of curriculum making. The new policy stands in sharp contrast to the ideas and principles of the Humboldtian tradition. As a consequence, and despite the fact that we need more empirical evidence, there are strong indications that universities move towards stronger entrepreneurial ideas and a utilitarian ethos defined by the employment market. This new orientation has consequences for staff and student formation, notions of academic freedom, priorities in curriculum development and teaching-learning. Our analysis suggests that current academics need to be more aware of the implications of current policy and critically discuss what we mean by academic freedom and which values worth fighting for under current circumstances – particularly with regards to the relationship between educational purposes, content and students.

Policy rhetorics and resource neutral reforms in higher education: their impact and implications?

As higher education (HE) comes under increasing pressure from policy-makers, nationally and internationally, to contribute more directly to economic development, tensions between more traditional missions of universities and their more recent entrepreneurial makeovers create major dilemmas for academic staff regarding their roles and responsibilities. Using the lens of professional responsibility and accountability, the paper takes Initial Teacher Education as an instrumental case study to illustrate how these tensions, in terms of policy documents, and perceptions of teacher educators unfold. Analysis strongly suggest that when external prescription is increased, and reforms under-resourced, pressures for accountable conformist compliance render the exercise of professional responsibility extremely difficult if not impossible, compromised rather than finding ‘legitimate compromise’. The paper argues that HE has significant lessons to learn from this case while signalling that current challenges within teacher education are already becoming a gauntlet that the entire HE community needs to consider seriously.

When mere knowledge is not enough: the potential of bildung as self-determination, co-determination and solidarity

How can higher education educate graduates who know more than ‘just knowledge’? Such an education includes developing in students an awareness of the limits of their knowledge, an ability to discern what kinds of knowledge are appropriate in a given situation and a sensitivity to different forms of knowing. When is scientific rigour appropriate and when is another type of knowing appropriate? When should one set aside own preferences in favour of the needs of others? This paper rethinks ‘bildung’ as a source of ideas on aims for teaching students. Making the arguably ephemeral ideal of bildung work in practice can be an obstacle. This paper, however, takes it as a positive challenge, exploring ways in which bildung might be appropriate in professional education. If bildung can be helpful even within this most applied part of higher education, implications in terms of the development of more readily applicable and fully inclusive notions of bildung would benefit not only professional education but also higher education more generally. Drawing on work by Wolfgang Klafki, the authors argue the value of updated notions of bildung. Klafkis three-part conception of bildung as self-determination, co-determination and solidarity helps reconnect the importance of personal development with that of peer communities (e.g., professional bodies) and action for others. Klafkis framework facilitates working with ethical-epistemological questions such as these.

Learning from Conceptions of Professional Responsibility and Graduates Experiences in Becoming Novice Practitioners

In this chapter you are invited to consider the complexity of professional responsibility. The argument we construct is in six sections. Part 1 develops a theoretical framework around professional responsibility and positions this within the negotiation of meaning and identity within communities of practice, competing influences of accountability and autonomy. Cognisance is also taken of these dynamic influences within a wider confluence of ‘social movements’ (Castells, 2000, The information age: Economy, society and culture volume III end of millennium (2nd edn., Vol. III). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers; 2004, The information age economy, society and culture volume II the power of identity (2nd edn.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.) and the imperative to construct new synergies. Part 2 describes the national policy context of higher education in Norway and how external forces such as the Bologna Agreement are shaping national policies in some areas (cf. Karseth, 2008, Education & Democracy – Journal of Didactics and Educational Policy, 17(2), 51–72). Part 3 deals with the participants in the study and its methodological challenges, the manner in which the data were generated and analysed (cf. Solbrekke, 2007, Understanding conceptions of professional responsibility). Part 4 presents a number of themes that indicate the manner in which graduate students within two different professional schools have concepts of professional responsibility mediated to them and the various ways in which they first begin to internalise and work with them, while they begin to develop their professional identities during their transition from higher education to workplace settings. Part 5 focuses on these students’ experiences of professional responsibility as novice professionals; how they renegotiate their conceptions of professional responsibility in workplace environments and their ongoing identity construction is re-formed in the context of workplace realities. Part 6 speculates on the scope for reconceptualising our approach to professional responsibility and on how higher education might respond in a more comprehensive manner to its own responsibility for the professional formation of new professionals.

Trends in the practices of academic developers: trajectories of higher education?

ABSTRACT Amidst the rapidly evolving Higher Education (HE) landscape, this paper provides a systematic review of Academic Development (AD) work, the roles and responsibilities of Academic Developers (ADs) in HE. Beginning from the perspective that HE institutions, as publicly funded organisations, have responsibility to contribute to the public good, more than 100 peer-reviewed papers (1995–2015) are interrogated under five themes. These are: a review of reviews, technology and AD work, their status and identity, assessment of AD work and impact, and the leadership roles of ADs and their impact on institutional leadership. Critical to the evolution of their work has been a more mainstream and public contribution. Their emerging responsibilities in collaboration with institutional leaders, as ‘brokers’ and ‘bridge-builders’ position them more strategically within institutions – with potential to be compromised in terms of their espoused values and dispositions while potentially more influential in shaping the futures of their organisations.

Student formation in higher education: teachers’ approaches matter

ABSTRACT Teaching in higher education encompasses more than merely helping students develop knowledge and skills. It entails engaging students in their own formation as persons, professionals and citizens. From this perspective, this article investigates how approaches to teaching academic writing contribute to formation. By analysing a case from initial teacher education in Norway, we identify and examine one teacher educator’s beliefs about writing and his approaches to teaching writing. Theoretical framework rests on six discourses of writing developed by Roz Ivanič and on the formative possibilities and constraints embedded in these different literacy discourses. Thus, we provide students’ experien-ces with this teacher’s approaches and discuss what formation his approaches seem to have initiated. The findings point to the need for more critical reflection on the formative impact of teaching approaches in higher education more generally.

From university to professional practice: Students as journeymen between cultures of education and work

The overarching research problem addressed in this chapter is the relationship between professional/higher education and professional work. The chapter will discuss the relevance of university education for professional practice with a particular focus on professional identity formation and formation of professional responsibility. We discuss how different professional programs and their traditions and cultures shape different curricular structures that have an impact on students professional identity formation and transition to work. We will also discuss experiences with and learning of professional responsibility in the web of commitments within educational settings and how new multiple expectations emerge and lead to new learning experiences when entering work life. The argument of the chapter is based on the rationale and findings from an extensive international research program, conducted between 2001 and 2008.