Understandingof professional practice and learningin globalised work

Tara FenwickUniversity of Stirling

transitions

transition … derived from• the Latin transitus

(passage; crossing)• the Late Latin transire

(go over, cross)• the Latin trans (beyond,

across)

Why understanding transitions matters

• Psychological – personal struggle, dissonance, challenges to self-concept. Counselling to provide personal coping strategies

• Organisation/management studies – planning & ‘managing’ workers’ change

• Policy/regulatory view – ensuring quality & reliability of professional decision-making

Why understanding transitions matters• Educational interest – understanding & supporting learning

processes in transition

a sociological starting point …

Transitions in

New Public Managerialism

less knowledge authority & discretionary judgment

multiple competing stakeholdersand regulatory agencies

increased audit measuresand performativity

personal transitions in professional practice

• unfolding career• role/responsibility• knowledge• migration

• as problem needing management

• as perpetual, inevitable• as ‘becoming’• as institutionalized path• as turning point• as journey

discourses of transition

Educational assumptions about transition

• people can become ‘prepared’ through knowledge • what’s coming is known• we should develop strategies to ‘cope’

Researching transitions – insights and problems

psychological approach

• Life tasks & self concept• Cognitive coping

strategies– Planning & reflection– Translate goals and self-

beliefs to action

• Emotional coping strategies– “defensive pessimism”– “optimism”

problems – psychological approach• Unpredictable effects of cultural norms, values• Mediated by others’ expectations, language,

positioning (power)• Hundred of cognitive dimensions influence choices• People perform and identify with diverse selves

‘life course’ sociology approach

• Life history enmeshed with environments

• Social/cultural capital• Discourses influencing self-

narratives• Triggers of transition, and

responses

• Learning/identity/agency

Role of learning in lifecourse approach

• what people learn from their lives, what they learn for their lives – and how

• Learning as blocker and as enabler

• What restricts mobility, new possibilities?

• What best supports ‘enabling’ learning that manages transitions?

Problems – lifecourse approach

• Focusing on the individual• Focusing on events• The ‘becoming’ discourse• Pathologising transitions• ‘Managing’ transitions

Career passages approach

• School-to-work

• Career ‘stages’

• Periphery to center

problems – career passages

• Normative patterns, homogenised, linear• Economism – individualist, adaptive• Work sites as static blocks? – only the individual moves• Deflects critical gaze from processes causing change

Issues - ‘transitions’ as learningConstruction of ‘risk’

(need help, soothing)Conception of passage

(space as static)

Conceptions of ‘journey’• (uni-directional)• (discourse of development)

Preoccupation with personal-psychological, or personal-social

• (ignores ecologies of practice& transition)• (accepts existing systems of production)

Questions for exploration?

• What is a ‘successful’ transition? (& is this a valid question?)• How can we conceptualise transitions in ways that disrupt

linearity , universality, ‘development’?• How do we examine the complex ecologies of transition? • Are distinctly different forms of transition experienced across

professional groups? Across activities? Regions? Moments?• How do different forms & practices of learning influence

professionals’ transitions?• Are some transitions more ‘empowering’ or

‘disempowering’?

What is the purpose of educational/ pedagogical intervention in professionals’ transitions? (and on what basis do we justify this purpose?)