Rethinking professional learning in higher education: a study on how the use of Open Educational Resources triggers the adoption of Open Educational Practice

This study explores how the practices of higher education educators evolve towards open educational practice (OEP) as they use open educational resources (OER) as a form of social media. Drawing on the theories of self-regulated learning (SRL) and cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), the study provides a novel way of analysing learning and development at work by focusing on related tensions. The interview data were, firstly, analysed by a thematic categorisation of 6 sub-categories of self-regulated learning and secondly, by using the method of discursive manifestations of contradictions. The findings evidence that educators find that their OEP does not fit easily within the current educational system. They have to balance conventional forms of education at scale with new and emerging open forms of education. This creates tensions indicating that educators need support in evolving their educational practice towards OEP and to reflect on what this change means for their practice

"What We Do Every Day Is Impossible" : Managing Change by Developing a Knotworking Culture in an Academic Library

Change, transformation, the reassessment of services and professional capabilities are key concepts in the language of academic libraries today. We suggest that two intertwined rationales - technical development and the marketisation of the public sector along with a customer approach - are driving the change that is challenging academic libraries to rethink their work and services. In this article, we first discuss embedded librarianship and knotworking in libraries as participatory approaches to the arrangement of academic library work and services. Second, we presented the findings of the Knotworking project and its follow-up interviews and suggest knotworking as a method with which librarians can collaboratively analyse their own work and develop services with researchers and thus respond to changing working environments. Third, we discuss changes in the work identity of librarians. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Asiakkaan käsitteellistäminen julkisella sektorilla : toiminnan teoreettinen analyysi

In the public sector, an emphasis on a customer approach has spread to a number of fields of work in Finland. This thesis investigates the conveyance and development of the concept of customer in four Finnish public organisations. The point of departure for the study is the marketisation of the public sector and the New Public Management (NPM) ideology, which emphasise the benefits of business models in public sector practices. The introduction of the concept of customer is an example of such benefits, and the development of the concept is examined in this particular cultural and historical context. Previous international studies have raised challenges related to customer thinking in the public sector and concerns over official discourses that seem to simplify the fundamental societal implications produced by the customer approach. The theoretical framework of my study is cultural-historical activity theory. The data comprises interviews (53) and documents (42) from each organisation. The studied organisations represent fields of elderly care, children s day care, road management, and academic library work. The findings in the document analysis suggest that in all the studied organisations, the use of the concept of customer has increased along with the introduction of the NPM doctrine. One interesting finding is the variety of conflicting situations which the interviewees experienced regularly in their service encounters. These conflicting situations are related to dominating old organisational structures and practices, which have not developed sufficiently with regard to customer thinking. In addition to these conflicting situations, another interesting finding was shared discourses which were related to the customer approach. My interpretation in this study is that at the core of the concept of the public sector customer are the opposing forces of the private sector s understanding of human beings as responsible individuals with free choice and the public sector s emphasis on collective citizenship and the public good. The opposing forces produce not only a variety of conflicting situations, but also possibilities for the development of the concept. This thesis theoretically opens up the background ideology behind the concept of customer in the public sector and thus increases the understanding of larger ongoing societal changes. The study provides new openings in regard to empirical studies on customer thinking from the perspective of employees. Such research objectives have been limited in number in the Finnish context. One important contribution of this study in regard to studies of working life is its explanation of the origin of conflicting situations from systemic tensions instead of trying to trace their origins to the behaviour of individuals.Asiakkuusajattelun korostaminen ja palvelujen käyttäjien ymmärtäminen asiakkaina on viime vuosikymmenien aikana yleistynyt julkisella sektorilla sekä Suomessa että muualla maailmassa. Väitöskirjatyössäni tarkastelen asiakas -käsitteen ilmenemistä ja kehittymistä neljässä julkisen sektorin organisaatiossa Suomessa. Tutkimukseni lähtökohta on uuden julkisjohtamisen (New Public Management) ideologia ja julkisen sektorin markkinamuotoistuminen, jotka ovat myötävaikuttaneet asiakas -käsitteen kehittymiseen julkiselle sektorille. Uusi julkisjohtamisen ideologia painottaa liiketoimintamallien tuomia etu julkisen sektorin toiminnassa. Aiemmat kansainväliset tutkimukset ovat nostaneet esiin käsitteeseen liittyviä haasteita sekä huolta siitä, että asiakasajattelulla on syvällisempiä yhteiskunnallisia vaikutuksia kuin mitä virallisessa puheessa esitetään. Tutkimukseni teoreettinen viitekehys on kulttuurihistoriallinen toiminnan teoria. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu vuosina 2004 2010 tehdyistä haastatteluista (53) ja kolmelta vuosikymmeneltä kerätyistä dokumenteista (42) neljässä organisaatiosta. Tutkittavien organisaatioiden toimialat ovat vanhusten kotihoito, lasten päivähoito, tienpito sekä yliopiston kirjastotoimi. Tulokset osoittavat, että kaikissa tutkittavissa organisaatioissa asiakas-käsitteen käyttö on lisääntynyt samanaikaisesti uuden julkisjohtamisen oppien käyttöönoton myötä. Kiinnostaviksi löydöksiksi nousevat erilaiset ristiriitatilanteet, joita työntekijät kuvailevat tapahtuvan päivittäisissä työtoiminnoissa. Ristiriitatilanteet viittaavat dominoiviin vanhoihin organisaatiorakenteisiin ja käytäntöihin, jotka eivät ole kehittyneet asiakkuusajattelun myötä. Ristiriitatilanteiden lisäksi kiinnostava löydös on asiakkuuteen liittyvä puhe, joka ilmenee samantyyppisenä kaikissa organisaatioissa niiden erilaisista toimialoista huolimatta. Tämä ovat tulkintani mukaan merkki siitä, että sekä asiakas -käsite että uuden julkisjohtamisen opit ovat yleistyneet julkisella sektorilla kyseenalaistamatta. Tulkintani mukaan julkisen sektorin asiakas -käsitteen ydin on yksityisen sektorin yksilöllisyyttä ja valinnanvapautta korostavasta ihmiskäsitys sekä julkisen sektorin kollektiivista hyvää tuottava kansalaisuusajattelu. Näiden erilaisten näkökulmien kohdatessa asiakas -käsitteessä syntyy erilaisia työhön liittyviä ristiriitatilanteita, mutta myös mahdollisuuksia käsitteen kehittymiselle. Väitöskirjatyöni valottaa käynnissä olevia yhteiskunnallisia muutoksia ja tuottaa uusia avauksia julkisen sektorin asiakkuusajatteluun liittyvään empiiriseen tutkimukseen, jota lähestytään työntekijöiden näkökulmasta. Vastaavanlainen tutkimus on Suomessa ollut vähäistä

Learning challenges in higher education : an analysis of contradictions within Open Educational Practice

Open education, including the use of open educational resources (OER) and the adoption of open education practice, has the potential to challenge educators to change their practice in fundamental ways. This paper forms part of a larger study focusing on higher education educators' learning from and through their engagement with OER. The first part of the study was a quantitative survey investigating educators' learning behaviour when they learned to use OER in their practice. The second part of the study explored qualitatively how educators engaged with OER and how they conceptualised their learning. Data were gathered through interviews with 30 higher education educators. This paper reports the analysis of these interviews. The analysis draws on the theory of self-regulated learning and cultural-historical activity theory to explore the challenges adult education practitioners encounter when changing their practice. The study tests the application of a framework that traces the discursive manifestations of contradictions, exploring how this framework can be used to examine different aspects of self-regulated learning as educators learn how to use OER. We have identified three distinct tensions in higher education educators' practice: tensions between the emerging needs of the individual (as he or she adopts new forms of practice) and organisational policies; between the transfer of responsibilities from educators to students as new practice is embedded and institutional accountability; and between cost efficiency and learning objectives. The framework for the discursive manifestations of contradictions was a useful tool used to surface these apparent tensions.Peer reviewe

The Role of Professional Learning in Addressing Global Challenges : Tensions and Innovations Associated With AMR

Changing work practice is critical when addressing global challenges. The expansion of work is mediated by a range of tensions inherent in the complex systems within which global challenges exist. This study examines tensions that inhibit the expansion of work practices contextualized within the global health challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). The study traces how an AMR surveillance system is being set up in a low-to-middle-income country in Asia (Country A). The research identifies a range of tensions that need to be considered when designing technology-enhanced learning interventions for professionals. This study is significant in moving technology-enhanced learning toward a wholistic approach that takes into account the work environment. This research takes an original standpoint by placing attention on specific work practices, then examining how technology-supported activities can build capacity. This places professionals at the center of a critical approach examining the ways technologies can add value to their professional lives. This work highlights the importance of professionals' “voice” as a lens through which researchers document their reality. The study calls for a fundamental shift in the orientation of technology-enhanced learning interventions, moving attention toward work practice and mapping supporting technologies around this, rather than focusing primarily on the technology and planning learning activity with technology tools.Peer reviewe

Solmutyöskentely kirjastossa : Raportti Helsingin yliopiston keskustakampuksen kirjaston ja pilottitutkimusryhmien kehittämishankkeesta

Peer reviewe

Personal Stories of Young Women in Residential Care: Health-Promoting Strategies and Wellbeing

Interdisciplinary social work practice produces and circulates narratives of young women in residential care. The dominant narratives often present negative descriptions of this group, and less attention has been paid to their resistance to these “big stories”. This study’s aim is to illuminate this resistance of young women in residential care and to explore how they narrate their experiences of being children at risk who have become women managing everyday life. This study utilises a narrative approach and includes three selected personal stories: two from the participants and one from the first author’s reflections on resistance. Through contextual analysis at the macro, meso and micro levels, we focus on how personal stories can influence interdisciplinary social work services. We found resistance to dominant narratives on the different levels in the chosen stories. Resistance can create space to reconstruct and renarrate reality together and help understand the meaning and power of storytelling and silence. Participants’ resistance can be a tool to rebalance the power between social work practitioners and service users. Based on this analysis, we suggest that interdisciplinary collaborative social work should emphasise service users’ personal stories to a higher degree and, in this way, increase user participation in residential care

Professional learning as a response to societal challenges at this time of continuing struggle

The paper offers a case study of a project that examines professional learning as a response to the societal challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), defined as the ability of a microorganism to stop an antimicrobial from working against it. AMR has been identified as a significant global challenge. Reducing the effects of AMR requires a step change in learning and working in health-care settings. This study draws on cultural-historical activity theory to examine tensions expressed by professionals involved in AMR activities in three low- and middle-income countries. The qualitative study was based on 60 interviews. Tensions were analysed by thematic analysis and placing them within an activity system. The paper discusses these tensions inhibiting reconceptualization of moving towards the new activity, and four “opposing forces” for further analysis. It offers a critical reflection on how the findings informed educational researchers to navigate further tensions as the research project evolved

Antimicrobial resistance challenging professional learning in three LMICs

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a huge global challenge calling for changes in learning and working in health care settings. The purpose of this study is to examine tensions expressed by professionals involved in AMR in three low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in Asia and Africa. The qualitative study was based on 60 face-to-face or online interviews in three LMICs. The interviews were analysed by thematic analysis and analysis of elements of an activity system. A number of tensions within activity systems were analysed revealing key issues inhibiting reconceptualisation of object of work and moving toward new activity. The study suggests the issues of ‘context’ and ‘collaboration’ as critical when developing learning and work activities in analysed settings. This study expands the analysis of learning needs beyond individual skills and knowledge by taking a systemic approach using the CHAT framework. It shows that learning around AMR is needed at individual, organisational and national level

Technology-supported Capacity Building on AMR Surveillance: Findings from the Pilot Phase

Our ability to treat life-threatening conditions is threatened by the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Tackling the effects of AMR requires international collaboration, political commitment and partnerships to ensure that robust AMR surveillance can provide health intelligence data to inform evidence-based interventions at local, national and international levels. Strengthening AMR surveillance is a much greater challenge in weak health systems, as in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs), where the impact of infectious diseases is highest and the ability to respond to AMR may be limited. As a response to the global threat of drug-resistant infections, the UK Government has established the Fleming Fund that plays a critical role in achieving the resolution of the 68th World Health Assembly, 2015 (WHA A68/20), and in realising the ‘Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2016’. The work detailed in this report contributes to the Fleming Fund programme led by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), specifically the objective overseen by Mott MacDonald to improve capacity in AMR surveillance in LMICs. This work is aligned with the World Health Organization’s Global AMR Surveillance System (GLASS), which acts as the blueprint for a multi-stakeholder global response to averting a global health crisis caused by AMR . The Open University is the Global Learning Partner of the Fleming Fund Management Agent, Mott MacDonald. The OU has been appointed to develop and implement a programme that will help a range of stakeholders in Fleming Fund participating countries increase their knowledge, skills and understanding of AMR. As defined by the grant agreement between the Open University (OU) and Mott MacDonald, the Grant 1 (April 2018 to September 2019) supported the OU to develop and pilot an approach to delivering that programme. This work was carried out in two phases where evidence from Phase 1 Scoping (April – December 2018) informed Phase 2 Piloting (January – September 2019). An interim report submitted to Mott MacDonald in November 2018 summarised the findings of the scoping phase and outlines the approach to the piloting phase. In this report, we draw on the evidence from Phase 2 in which the OU designed, developed and facilitated two pilot learning events in two target countries, Bhutan and Ghana: the first event was an 8-week online course, Understanding Antibiotic Resistance, and the second one was a 7-week blended event (online, face-to-face), The Power of Data to tackle AMR. This report will inform a longer-term approach to build AMR surveillance capacity in LMICs in a further Grant over the period 2019-2021