Proposal view
| Proposal Type: | Individual Paper |
|---|---|
| Domain: | Higher Education |
| SIG: | Higher Education |
| Type | Submitted Paper |
| Equipment |
PC and projector |
| Paper Details |
|---|
| Title | Students' stories as a promoter of developmental transfer between work and education |
|---|---|
| Abstract | The purpose of this paper is to describe how the narratives of social work students promote developmental transfer between work and education in Finland. Students’ stories were based on their experiences during their practice period in child welfare work/family work. The stories gave students (N=6) and their teachers (N=4) a possibility to share their experiences, ideas and knowledge base concerning current practice in family work. The data were collected in seminar sessions (20 min per story) that were videotaped and transcribed in 2005. According to the findings, the students’ stories helped them and their teachers to discuss the same topic. Three types of narratives emerged during the seminars: 1. how to discuss a difficult topic with the client (focusing on early intervention), 2. how to set limits for an aggressive child, and 3. how to develop shared responsibility concerning problem behaviour in a child. The study suggests that there is a need to develop collaboration between the multiprofessional team and families around the questions that emerged from the students’ narratives. Moreover, we suggest that students’ narratives are a good method of bringing forth new ideas for developmental transfer when integrating higher education, working practice and research. |
| Summary | The aims: The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the stories of Finnish students of social work promote developmental transfer between work and education. According to Konkola et al. (2004), developmental transfer shifts the emphasis from individual transfer of knowledge to collaborative efforts of organizations to create new knowledge and practices. A central feature of this kind of collaborative expertise is characterized as boundary crossing between activity systems of work and education by bringing information, knowledge and practices from one activity system to another. During their practical training period in client work the students tried to identify problematic situations for which they could not find a solution. They were asked to write stories where they described this situation, after which they shared their individual stories with their peers and teachers during seminar sessions. This study suggests that the problematic situations that emerged through the students’ stories can be used to develop the knowledge and skills of both students and personnel in the practice of social work in terms of developmental transfer. The research questions were the following: 1. what kind of stories do the students share with their peers and teachers in a seminar after the practical training period in client work, and 2. how is theoretical knowledge used as a tool in collaborative narratives? Methodology: A narrative approach was adopted for the research, because it offers a scheme, either implicit or explicit, for organizing and understanding the relations between the learning events described (Gubrium & Holstein 1997, Lieblich et al. 1998). The narrative approach focuses on producing stories of the seminar sessions by the students. Saarenheimo (2002) points out that the key issue in narrative research is the Where question: where do narratives come from? In this view, the participants of a seminar tell their personal stories and create a collaborative narrative. According to Saarenheimo, both in representational and ontological nativity the focus seems to be on the relationship between real life and narratives. In a dialogical conception of narratives, the focus is on the social acts of narrating, co-narrating and listening (Boje 2001). The meanings of the truth of the studied phenomena are constructed through a process of analysis by the researcher. Furthermore, truth is relative. It is a process of putting together fragments of research related to narratives. It is a loose frame of reference, within which attention is paid to narratives as producers and transmitters of reality. Research applies the term ‘narrative’ to material about the world, while research can on the other hand be understood in itself as producing narratives about the world. Furthermore, the communication in the seminar sessions can be defined as storytelling. Storytelling combines the matters told and the process of telling in both the spoken and the unspoken context (Gubrium & Holstein 1997). In seminar sessions, storytelling is a process in which the students and teachers tell their stories, both spoken and unspoken. Storytelling also allows them to share their stories, their thoughts about them as well as their knowledge with each other (Banks-Wallance 1998). The data were collected in 2005 from volunteers. Students’ stories were based on their experiences during their practice period in child welfare work/family work. The stories gave students (N=6) and their teachers (N=4) a possibility to share their experiences, ideas and knowledge base concerning current practice of family work. The teachers had defined the timetable for the seminar. In the seminar, every student shared his/her story (1-2 pages each) with the other participants (10-15 minutes), after which the group discussed this story in order to understand what had happened and why (about one hour/ story). Moreover, the aim of the session was to discuss the focus of learning in the students’ stories. The seminars were videotaped and transcribed afterwards (34 pages). Findings: According to the findings, the students’ stories helped them and their teachers to discuss the same topic. However, our analyses revealed that the students were mostly unable to link their personal stories with the social and institutional contexts and the different theories and conceptions of learning and social work. Three types of narratives emerged during the seminars: 1. how to discuss a difficult topic with the client (the early intervention method), 2. how to set limits for an aggressive child, and 3. how to develop shared responsibility concerning problem behaviour in a child. This last narrative was associated with a new way of enhancing collaboration between work and education, which according to Konkola et al. (2004) is based on successful boundary crossing and formation of a shared object between the activity systems of work and education. Theoretical and educational significance of the research: In higher education, and particularly in professions where human interaction and relationships play a central role, there is a need to develop learning and assessment methods that involve human dialogue in its various forms. The study suggests that there is also need to develop collaboration between the multiprofessional team and families around the questions that emerged from the students’ narratives. Moreover, we suggest that students’ narratives are a good method of bringing forth new ideas for developmental transfer when integrating higher education, working practice and research. References Banks-Wallance, JA., 1998. Emansipatory potential of storytelling in a group. Image - the Journal of Nursing Scolarship 30 (1), 17-21. Boje, D. M. 2001. Narrative methods for organizational and communication research. London: Sage. Gubrium, J. F. & Holstein, J. A. 1997. The new language of qualitative method. New York: Oxford University Press. Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., Zilber, T., 1998. Narrative research. Reading, analysis and interpretation. Sage Publications, USA. Konkola, R., Tuomi-Gröhn, T., Lambert, P. & Ludvigsen, S. 2004. Developmental tools for promoting learning and transfer across boundaries. Manuscript submitted for publication. Saarenheimo, M. 2002. Narrative approaches in counselling and supervision. A paper presented at the II International Symposium on Narrative Research Bridging Reality and Fiction. Univeristy of Oulu, March, 21-22th 2002. |
| Keywords | Activity theory Collaborative learning Higher education |
| Appendices | |
| Authors | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Surname | Institution | Country | EARLI Number | Presenting | |
| Anneli | Sarja | Institute for Educational Research | Finland | anneli.sarja@ktl.jyu.fi | * | |
| Sirpa | Janhonen | University of Oulu | Finland | sirpa.janhonen@oulu.fi | ||
