Teachers’ professional identity negotiations in two different work organisations

Recent studies have described professional identity as the interplay between individual agency and social context. However, we need to understand how these are intertwined in different kinds of work settings. This paper focuses on teachers’ professional identity negotiations as involving the work organisation, the professional community and individual agency. The data were gathered from two work organisations representing different management cultures and sources of control over teachers’ work. Open-ended narrative interviews were used, focusing on teachers’ own experiences and perceptions. A data-driven qualitative analysis was applied. Our findings indicated that different work organisations provided differing resources for teachers’ professional identity negotiations. Teachers were more committed to their work organisation if they had enough agency, if they had opportunities to practise their own orientations towards the profession, and if major changes were not imposed on their working practices from outside

Informal learning contexts in the construction of physical education student teachers' professional identity

This study aimed to investigate the significance of informal learning contexts in physical education (PE) student teachers’ professional identity construction. It addressed two research questions: How do informal learning contexts contribute to the construction of PE student teachers’ professional identity? What forms of relationships can be identified between the informal and formal contexts of learning in PE student teachers’ professional identity construction? The data consisted of 20 semi-structured interviews with PE student teachers during the final teaching practice period. The data were analysed using structural and pattern coding methods. The analysis revealed that informal learning contexts contributed to three elements of professional identity construction: professional ambitions, professional values and principles, and professional knowledge and competencies. Three distinct forms of relationships between informal and formal learning contexts in the construction of professional identity were also discovered: complementary, reconstructive and disconnected. Informal learning contexts appear highly influential in the construction of professional identity. The results also point towards a holistic notion of professional identity, where professional and personal aspects of identity merge and overlap in the construction of professional identity.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Students’ accounts of their participation in an intensive long-term learning community

Collaborative learning environments have been analysed extensively, yet we know relatively little about how students experience their participation in long-term learning communities where learners work together over extended periods of time. This study aims to understand pre-service teacher–students’ experiences and accounts of their participation in a university-based long-term learning community. The study investigates issues of change and stability, with respect to the students’ perceptions of participation over the first 2 years of their work within the learning community. The study also addresses the relations between the students’ accounts of participation and their learning experiences in terms of ‘teachership’. A teacher–trainee group of nine students, who had studied for 3 years within a Masters level teacher education programme which had adopted an intensive community-based approach, individually appraised their participation and learning within the programme. Using empirical data derived from the learners’ own evaluations of their learning experiences, the study draws on the accounts given by students concerning their orientations to and positions within the learning community. Videotaped recordings of some of the student's seminars were used as resources to support the giving of appraisals using questionnaires which contained both closed- and open-ended questions. Results showed that the students’ qualitative accounts of their participation revealed great differences in their orientations to group activities. Considerable differences in orientations could be found with respect to: students’ relation to power; to socio-emotional involvement; to the degree of participation; to the subject-matter and to theoretical interests. These were related to the quantitatively evaluated level of participation. Based on the analysis of students’ perceived trajectories of participation over 2 years, three qualitatively different trajectories could be identified: highly involved participation, increased participation and decreased or marginal participation. A comparison of the perceived learning experiences arising from these different kinds of participation revealed considerable diversity in the students’ major learning objectives and in the social and affective aspects of their learning. The most impressive and comprehensive learning took place among those reporting increased participation. For those reporting highly involved participation, the group functioned first and foremost as a source of motivation. However, those group-members who reported decreased and marginal participation found the learning experience to be emotionally and affectively very negative. The results suggest that if students cannot have an active participatory role in the community, they are in danger of being marginalized and this in turn has consequences for learning

Content analysis: What are they talking about?

Quantitative content analysis is increasingly used to surpass surface level analyses in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (e.g., counting messages), but critical reflection on accepted practice has generally not been reported. A review of CSCL conference proceedings revealed a general vagueness in definitions of units of analysis. In general, arguments for choosing a unit were lacking and decisions made while developing the content analysis procedures were not made explicit. In this article, it will be illustrated that the currently accepted practices concerning the ‘unit of meaning’ are not generally applicable to quantitative content analysis of electronic communication. Such analysis is affected by ‘unit boundary overlap’ and contextual constraints having to do with the technology used. The analysis of e-mail communication required a different unit of analysis and segmentation procedure. This procedure proved to be reliable, and the subsequent coding of these units for quantitative analysis yielded satisfactory reliabilities. These findings have implications and recommendations for current content analysis practice in CSCL research

Leadership = Communication? The relations of leaders' communication styles with leadership styles, knowledge sharing and leadership outcomes

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between leaders' communication styles and charismatic leadership, human-oriented leadership (leader's consideration), task-oriented leadership (leader's initiating structure), and leadership outcomes. Methodology: A survey was conducted among 279 employees of a governmental organization. The following six main communication styles were operationalized: verbal aggressiveness, expressiveness, preciseness, assuredness, supportiveness, and argumentativeness. Regression analyses were employed to test three main hypotheses. Findings: In line with expectations, the study showed that charismatic and human-oriented leadership are mainly communicative, while task-oriented leadership is significantly less communicative. The communication styles were strongly and differentially related to knowledge sharing behaviors, perceived leader performance, satisfaction with the leader, and subordinate's team commitment. Multiple regression analyses showed that the leadership styles mediated the relations between the communication styles and leadership outcomes. However, leader's preciseness explained variance in perceived leader performance and satisfaction with the leader above and beyond the leadership style variables. Implications: This study offers potentially invaluable input for leadership training programs by showing the importance of leader's supportiveness, assuredness, and preciseness when communicating with subordinates. Originality/value: Although one of the core elements of leadership is interpersonal communication, this study is one of the first to use a comprehensive communication styles instrument in the study of leadership. © 2009 The Author(s)

Communication between parents and children in experimental situations

The purpose of the present study was (1) to investigate the claim that both verbal and nonverbal communication styles are related to the social and educational background of the parents, (2) to shed light on the discrepant findings of sex differences in family interaction, (3) to examine parent-child communication in different contexts, and ( 4) to attempt to escribe interaction at different levels of analysis. Two experiments were carried out. The subjects in the first experiment were 40 Finnish first graders and their mothers or fathers. The subjects in the second experiment were 48 Finnish families with a four-year-old child. The families were divided into equal groups of lower and higher parental education. The first experiment was carried out in the laboratory and the second one in two stages: the first in a laboratory setting and the second in a laboratory setting or at home. The videotaped situations consisted of different cooperative tasks. The results showed that parental education is not of central importance in everyday communication. There were, however, differences between the two education groups in regard to parents' teaching styles and patterns of communication. The results of the first experiment showed that the parents with a higher education level explained the rules of the game in an exact fashion before playing. Moreover, the results .of the second experiment replicated this finding in that the parents with higher education levels used more mental operational demands in teaching their child than did parents with a lower education level. Many parents with a higher education level also treated their child as an active participant in a problem-solving task by trying to stimulate the child with questions and pieces of information to enable the child to arrive at solutions and to correct mistakes. Only a few minor differences were found in the communication between mothers and fathers as well as between girls and boys. Instead, the particular nature of the tasks and the phase of the task was found to be essential to the forms of interaction

Mothers' and fathers' communication with their preschool-aged children in experimental sessions

The present study examines the communication of parents and their four-year-old child with a sample of 48 Finnish families. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of parental education, the sex of parent and child, the presence and absence of another parent, the activity undertaken by the participants and the familiarity of the context (the first vs the second stage of the study, home vs laboratory). The families were divided into equal groups of lower and higher parental education. The experiments were carried out in two stages: the first in the laboratory setting and the second in the laboratory setting or at home. The videotaped situations consisted of different cooperative tasks. Measures of communication were based on sequential data: Basic social skills of interaction (initiatives, acknowledgements, nonverbal reactions) and exchanges in communication (question-, demand-, suggestion- and statement exchanges). The results indicated that parental education and parent's sex are not of central importance in parent-child communication. The purpose of interaction and the type of the task had the clearest influence on the basic social skills of interaction and the exchanges of communication. In addition, the task appeared to exert differential effects on the communication of different parent-child groups

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