putting theory to work: comparing theoretical perspectives on academic practices in teaching and...

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Theory Crossing: Perspectives on change in academic workgroups

ICED Conference, Cape Town, 24 Nov 2016

John HannonLa Trobe University, Melbourne

James GarrawayCape Peninsula University of

Technology, Cape Town


Theory crossing

RationaleReach beyond traditional educational theories to address ethical & social justice issues in higher education Compare perspectives on change in higher education Apply three theories to a single data-set on teaching practices Conduct a dialogue across theoretical positions


The case & the project

Research Team

John Hannon, La Trobe University

Tai Peseta University of Sydney

James Garraway; Chris Winberg Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Hannon, Garraway, Winberg & Peseta (2016) Putting theory to work – comparing theoretical perspectives on academic practices in teaching and learning change

Overall Project: The flow of new knowledge practices: an inquiry into teaching, learning and curriculum dynamics in academic workgroups


The case study

The Setting

Emergency Medicine Sciences (EMS), CPUT

Workgroups

Participants: Workgroup consists of 15 academics, of whom three have completed the PGCert/Gcert in HE program

Data: Interviews, focus group: Seven teaching academics, one HOD

Analysis: the collective - the unit of analysis is the discipline workgroup

The “workgroup” or disciplinary collective (Trowler, 2008) “the point of social interaction by small groups such as those in the classroom, in university departments, in the curriculum planning team, or in a hundred other task-based teams within the higher education system” (p. 20)


Research questions

The focusexplore change, knowledge and practice in discipline collectives

Three methodologies; one data-set, blind analytical process

How do academic workgroups utilise the knowledge, skills of GCert/PGCert completers?

1. How are scholarly ideas and institutional know-how from GCert put to use in the workgroup

2. How does collaboration happen among GCert completers in workgroups

3. How does involvement in decision-making exercising influence in the workgroup


Methodologies on change through the collective

T&L Regimes (Trowler, 2008)What are the “rules, assumptions, practices and relationships related to L&T in HE”

Collective: workgroup

Highlights ‘cultural moments’ in practice

Social realism (Archer 2000)

Sociomaterialism (Fenwick 20100

What must have been the case for why/how things emerge as they do?Structure | Culture | AgencyReal| Actual | Empirical

Collective: ‘corporate agency’

Social justice agenda

How are practices are assembled and stabilised? Could things be otherwise?

Collective: network of social & material actors

A disclosing project


Methodology 1: Teaching & Learning Regimes

TLRs: a set of nine cultural moments: Development/attribution of meaningscodes of signification discursive repertoires recurrent practices subjectivities in interaction power relationstacit assumptions rules of propriety implicit theories (Trowler, 2005.p. 23-26)

T&L regimes (Trowler 2008)Examine the “constellation of rules, assumptions, practices and relationships related to L&T in HE”

Department: Emergency Medicine Sciences

Workgroup: Seven teaching academics


Methodology 1: Teaching & Learning Regimes

TLR#1: Development/attribution of meanings “…So we moderate each other [] across all programs … everybody needs to be involved almost in everybody else’s program somewhere. And that’s very meaningful because it means that you’ve got many cross checks in terms of what you’re doing and what you’re not doing ”

EMS Workgroup

Interview: Focus group

Topic: assessment moderation

Consolidating meaning and action: “the meaning of the project gains ontological solidity and the components which compose the project also develop a particular reality” (Trowler, 2005, p.23).

Effects and affectsCompletion of the GCert offered the workgroupa shared set of educational ideas, language & practices predictability & routine re teaching practice Potential moral judgement


Methodology 2: Social Realism

There was a change in practice from lecture and instructional delivery to more active and engaged forms of teaching students

HoD: “I think like problem based learning is something that’s come out and now some of the lecturers are using that and the other would be you know, we’re seeing the constructivisim coming in more and e-learning you know

What must have been the case for why and how things emerge as they do?Structure | Culture | AgencyReal| Actual | Empirical

Social realism (Archer, 2000

The Gcerts have influenced departmental practices …

Some changes have been towards more engaged forms of learning


Methodology 2: Social Realism

What were the antecedent enabling conditions for agency to take effect? Cultural change

Social realism (Archer, 2000

Structural changes created discontinuities in the field of ideas about teaching (culture) which paved the way for changes in practice in the classroom

“So now we had to move from teaching skills and skills based on training and very procedural type of you know, information to creating like a reflective practitioner who was able to make a clinical diagnosis and examination of the patient required a little bit more in depth”


Methodology 3: Socio-materialism

Socio-materialism

From emergency medicine practitioner to university educator

Traced materials that were dynamic, generative and social

Change was visible in material arrangements: in routines, attire, rescue techniques, accreditation requirements, rubrics, skills training for problem solving

Materials in the workgroup: textbooks, digital files, assessments, policies, curriculum, lectures, learning spaces conceptual resources: teaching approaches, techniques, and theoretical frameworks


Methodology 3: Socio-materialism

Assembling the HE educator

new material arrangements and ordering

Collective “identity work”

Consolidating identities through the GCert: Workgroup distinguishes the EM professional from the university educator through particular material arrangements: of classrooms, fewer PPT, more discussion, peer & PBL assessment

Assembling new practices: “[Students] stand when the lecturer comes into the classroom. You know we have, like rescue is very regimental … But at the same time we try to say well you know we want the participation, we want your feedback, we want there to be discussion. So …there’s an interplay between those two roles”


Theory crossovers

T&L Regimes (Trowler, 2008)

Asks how does T&L change happen locally & holistically

Articulated local practices/cultures, subject to external drivers

Constructionist view: change in the flow of social processes

Social realism (Archer 2000)

Sociomaterialism (Fenwick 2010)

Asks how can human agents effect change?

Identified structural discontinuities that enabled agency

Objectivist view: change in real, independently existing structures

Asks how do “things” stay in place, or (de)stabilise

Identified the new assemblages of the HE educator

Poststructuralist view: Reality and change as an effect of relations - no macro/micro distinction


Comparing incommensurable theories

Social realism: structure and agency are linked yet distinct levels of social reality

human agency is dynamic and politically charged through its interplay with structure

Sociomaterialism:no pre-schematised world separate from our frameworks, perspectives and descriptions

agency, structure, identity are effects that emerge from the same mix or assemblage of human and material relations


Staying theoretically agile

What kinds of theoretical resources enable educational developersto give voice to issues of ethics and social justice?

Trowler’s caution on position-taking: that there is “the danger that one’s professional identity becomes bound up with a particular theoretical approach” (2012, p. 278) Implications for an ethics of care:extend research into teaching in higher education beyond its pedagogical settings to the business, governance and technologies of practice


QnA

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Archer, M. S. (1995). Realist Social Theory: A Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Archer, M. S. (2000). Being Human: The Problem of Agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ashwin, P. (2012). How often are theories developed through empirical research in higher education? Studies in Higher Education, 37(8), 941-955

Fenwick, T. (2010). Re-thinking the ‘thing’: sociomaterial approaches to understanding and researching learning in work. Journal of Workplace Learning, 22(1/2), 104-116.

Trowler, P. (2008). Cultures and change in higher education: theories and practices. England & NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Trowler, P. (2012) Wicked issues in situating theory in close-up research, Higher Education Research & Development, 31:3, 273-284, DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2011.631515

References