Miten käsitteellistää ammatillista toimijuutta työssä?

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan, miten toimijuus on ymmärretty monitieteisessä keskustelussa. Lisäksi pohditaan, miten ammatillista toimijuutta työssä tulisi käsitteellistää. peerReviewed

Ikääntyneet aikuiset kuntoutustyöntekijöiden puheessa : työn kohteesta osallistuvaksi aikuiseksi?

Artikkelissa kuvataan kuntoutustyöntekijöiden puhetta ikääntyneistä aikuisista ryhmämuotoisessa kuntoutuksessa. Aineisto koostuu kuudesta kuntoutustyöntekijöiden moniammatillisesta fokusryhmäkeskustelusta, jotka toteutettiin kuudessa kuntoutuslaitoksessa. Aineisto analysoitiin diskurssianalyysiä hyödyntäen. Kuntoutustyöntekijöiden puheesta tunnistettiin viisi puhetapaa, joista arviointipuhe liittyi sosiaali- ja terveysalan (sote) kontekstiin, ohjaus- ja riskipuhe asiakkaiden oppimisen ja muutoksen kontekstiin sekä toiseus- ja oivalluspuhe työntekijöiden asiantuntijuuteen. Kuntoutuksessa tavoitellusta asiakaslähtöisyyden periaatteesta huolimatta työntekijöiden arviointi-, ohjaus- ja riskipuh…

Professional agency in a university context: Academic freedom and fetters

Professional agency is an urgent topic in academic contexts, albeit relatively unexplored, and elaborated with contradictory conclusions on its extent and characteristics. To contribute to the discussion, this multimethod study investigated professional agency within a Finnish university. We utilised questionnaire data and interviews to explore agency, as manifested in influencing at work, developing work practices, and negotiating professional identity. We found that overall, these three dimensions of agency were manifested fairly substantially, and in a similar manner among the academic staff. The study further emphasises the social nature of professional agency, and presents theoretical …

Identity and Agency in Professional Learning

This chapter elaborates professional learning from two complementary perspectives, namely professional identity and agency. Starting with the conceptualization of identity and agency, the chapter illustrates how professional identity and agency are intertwined with workplace learning at the individual and social levels. In theoretical terms we adhere to a subject-centred socio-cultural approach. This implies that professional learning is seen as a dual process, involving identity negotiation and the development of work practices (including the practice of agency), with both aspects taking place within the socio-cultural and material conditions of the workplace. We see professional identity …

Staff Members’ Professional Agency within the Staff Community and the Education Policies: Supporting Integration in Multicultural and Multilingual School Communities

In recent decades, increased diversity and migration have challenged school staff members’ ways of working. This study aimed to identify the challenges faced by Finnish school staff in supporting students with migrant backgrounds, and to elaborate on how they enact professional agency toward these challenges. The data consist of 15 thematic interviews with staff members across various work positions in two Finnish lower secondary schools. Based on thematic analysis, the challenges within the staff community and the education policies were found to include the following: (1) the diversification of students makes tensions more visible in the staff community, and (2) inflexible education polic…

Seeking New Perspectives on the Development of Teacher Education – A Study of the Finnish Context

Studies show that changes in teacher education around the world occur slowly and are difficult to implement. This study aims to contribute to the discussion on the major resources for and obstacles to developing teacher education and finding novel solutions to overcome the obstacles. Resources and obstacles were investigated in the context of academic and university-based teacher education in Finland. Findings revealed three major challenges: (a) obstacles in renegotiating professional identity, (b) internal competition between subject-matter groups within the department, and (c) discrepancies between individual agency and organizational development. Based on the findings, this study argues…

Emotions in leaders’ enactment of professional agency

Purpose Although there has been an increase in workplace studies on professional agency, few of these have examined the role of emotions in the enactment of agency at work. To date, professional agency has been mainly conceptualised as a goal-oriented, rational activity aimed at influencing a current state of affairs. Challenged by this, this study aims to elaborate the nature and quality of emotions and how they might be connected to the enactment of professional agency. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected in the context of a leadership coaching programme that aimed to promote the leaders’ professional agency over the course of a year. The participants (11 middle-management lea…

Professional learning and agency in an identity coaching programme

This article addresses the professional learning that occurred in an identity coaching programme. The arts-based programme aimed to enhance the participants’ professional learning, notably through helping them to process their professional identities. Professional learning was seen as resourced by the participants’ professional agency, and by the promotion of such agency. Through interviews, we investigated what the participants perceived they had learnt during the programme, and the potential differences in learning outcomes between professional groups from university and hospital contexts. The findings showed that the programme was perceived as a rich learning arena in the domains of the …

Ammatillinen toimijuus : rakenne, mittari ja tuki

Emotion Regulation and Identity Negotiation: A Short Story Analysis of Finnish Language Teachers’ Emotional Experiences Teaching Pupils of Immigrant Background

This study explores the connection between emotion regulation and teacher identity by drawing on short stories present in interviews with four Finnish language teachers working with immigrant pupil...

Professional agency and its features in supporting teachers’ learning during an in-service education programme

Research has shown that professional agency is pivotal for understanding teachers’ professional learning in different contexts. However, we lack an elaborated understanding of teachers’ professiona...

A multi-componential methodology for exploring emotions in learning

Studies on emotions in learning are often based on interviews conducted after the learning. Therefore, these do not capture the multi-componential nature of emotions and how emotions are related to the process of learning. We see emotions as dimensional and multi-componential responses to a personally meaningful events and situation. In this methodologically frontline study we developed a multi-componential methodology, which provides complementary information about emotions during learning. In this study, by using a within subject design of one person, we focused on emotions during the professional identity learning. In a laboratory setting, the subject was shown personally meaningful vide…

Recent tensions and challenges in teacher education as manifested in curriculum discourse

Abstract This study seeks to contribute to discussions on the development of teacher education by analysing teacher educators' talk concerning curriculum reform. The curriculum is understood as a mediating construction between teacher educators and the social context, and the development of the curriculum is seen as a negotiation process between global discourses and local actors. Our aim was to understand the contrasting discourses used by teacher educators in talking about curriculum development, on the grounds that such discourses frame interpretations that direct the implementation of teacher education as a whole. Five contrasting interpretative repertoires were found. We illustrate the…

Emotionally loaded identity and agency in Finnish academic work

This narrative study investigated identity, agency and emotions, amongst an under-researched academic group – those without PhDs with primary responsibility for teaching, who are also expected to do research. In this interview-based paper, we examine the experience of such Finnish academics in a research-intensive university. Thematic and then narrative approaches were employed. The findings demonstrated five narratives which indicated both balanced and tensioned relations as regards academic identity, with variable perceptions of agency and emotions embedded. The study contributes in two ways: first, it adds to the little that is known of the experiences of the aforementioned under-researc…

University Teachers’ Professional Identity Work and Emotions in the Context of an Arts-Based Identity Coaching Program

In changing work contexts, there is a critical need to adopt practices that support professional identity work in order to promote individuals’ resilience and well-being at work. This chapter reports on an investigation into professional identity work and emotions in the context of an arts-based coaching program aimed at prompting experienced university teachers to process their professional identities. Since different (un)pleasant emotions emerged during the program, the chapter notably discusses the advantages and pitfalls of using arts-based methods among adults. The findings also contribute to the theoretical understanding of the role of emotions in professional identity processes by re…

Acting Agentically at Work: Developing a Short Measure of Professional Agency

Although professional agency has become an increasingly crucial issue in work organizations, investigators lack a brief instrument to measure it. This paper introduces a short measure to explore professional agency at work. Our aim was to shorten the original 17-item Professional Agency Measure, while also exploring its usability for cross-validating questionnaire datasets, and investigating the relationship between professional agency and work engagement. Three dimensions of professional agency emerged, with three items per dimension, across the domains of healthcare, real estate services, and information technology (all within Finland). All the dimensions (Influencing at work, Participati…

Tunteet ja työssä oppiminen: Rohkeus, turvallisuus, epävarmuus ja häpeä

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 organisati…

Teacher educators' collective professional agency and identity : Transforming marginality to strength

Abstract This study investigated teacher educators' collective professional agency and identity within an identity coaching programme. The participants in the programme were teacher educators from the field of arts and crafts education. Through a shared process involving increased trust and togetherness, the teacher educators became empowered in terms of their collective identity and agency. The study points to the importance of addressing individual narratives and learning pathways in seeking to understand emergent collective agency and identity in professional contexts. Our theoretical contribution includes an advanced understanding of collective identity and agency, and of their close re…

A multi-componential methodology for exploring emotions in learning : using self-reports, behaviour registration, and physiological indicators as complementary data

Studies on emotions in learning are often based on interviews conducted after the learning. These do not capture the multi-componential nature of emotions, nor how emotions are related to the processes of learning. We see emotions as dimensional, multi-componential responses to personally meaningful events and situations. In this methodologically advanced pilot study we developed a multi-componential methodology, capable of providing complementary information on emotions in professional learning. For this purpose, we used a within-subject design applied to a single individual, with a focus on emotions during professional learning. Within a laboratory setting, the subject was shown personall…

Ammatillisen toimijuuden ja työssä oppimisen vahvistaminen : luovia voimavaroja työhön!

Agentic perspective on fostering work-related learning

Despite the increased recognition of the role that professional agency plays in work-related learning, little is known about what supports it. Based on current theoretical notions, the first purpose of this paper is to show that professional agency is closely intertwined with work-related learning. The second purpose is to introduce some main principles that promote professional agency and describe three work-related training settings that are aimed at fostering learning by taking into account agentic perspectives. These complementary settings include an identity coaching programme, a leadership coaching programme, and a work conference. Based on the qualitative meta-synthesis, the paper fu…

Agency-centred coupling — a better way to manage an educational organization?

Teachers at the present time face continuous changes in their work and organizational practices. However, we lack empirical evidence as to what this implies for teachers and their work. This paper describes how two Finnish educational organizations restrict or enable teachers’ professional agency, in terms of how the teachers influence the conditions and contents of their work. The paper further addresses how agency is related to: (i) organizational and educational transformations, (ii) teachers’ professional development and identity negotiations and (iii) teachers’ commitment to the educational organization and well-being at work. This paper provides the comparative research evidence on bo…

The Reciprocal Relationship Between Emotions and Agency in the Workplace

In conjunction with a growing interest in professional agency, there is a need to understand how emotions are embedded in agentic practice. This chapter examines the emotions bound up with work and how these emotions are related to professional agency. The subjects of our study were leaders (middle management) and employees working in Finnish education and health-care organisations. A qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted to describe the relationship between professional agency and emotions. The study revealed a variety of emotions, including fear and enjoyment, related to professional identity, work, and social relationships. Among both employees and leaders, emotions were found to play…

Opettajankouluttajat ristiriitaisten vaateiden keskellä : yksilön ja organisaation välisiä jännitteitä

Opettajankouluttajien oman ammatillisen kehittymisen ja opettajankoulutuslaitoksen kehittymisen välillä vallitsee ristiriita. Aineryhmien olematon yhteistyö vaikuttaa opettajankoulutuksen toteuttamiseen ja heijastuu vahvasti myös opiskelijoihin. Opettajankouluttajat kuvaavat omaa organisaatiotaan vanhoihin tapoihinsa kangistuneeksi ja hitaasti kehittyväksi. Muutosta jarruttaa sisäinen kilpailu. – Päivi Hökän väitöstutkimus Teacher educators amid conflicting demands : tensions between individual and organizational development (Jyväskylän yliopisto 2012).

The professional agency of teacher educators amid academic discourses

Agency has been seen as fundamental in the renegotiation of professional identities. However, it is unclear how teacher educators exercise their professional agency in their work, and how multiple discourses frame and restrict the practice of their professional agency. This study examines how teacher educators practise agency in negotiating their professional identities amid the multiple discourses emerging from the academic context of their work. The aim was to investigate educators’ locally expressed professional agency in the context of the more global discourses that may construct teacher educator identities. The analysis made use of applied thematic discursive analysis to address patte…

Collective Agency-Promoting Leadership in Finnish Teacher Education

Globally, there is a political and social consensus that teacher education is a key priority for the twenty-first century. However, studies have so far paid little attention to a crucial issue, namely, leadership in teacher education. This chapter contributes to discussion on transforming teacher education practices by focusing on leadership practices in a particular Finnish teacher education department. Adopting a subject-centred sociocultural approach, we elaborate the main challenges, insights, and lessons learned, as perceived by the four leaders of the department, in efforts to move towards more innovative and collaborative practices. We argue that teacher education leaders currently r…

Professional identity among student teachers of physical education : the role of physicality

In this study, we investigate the role of physicality in the professional identities of physical education (PE) student teachers. Twenty PE student teachers participated in semi-structured interviews during their final teaching practice. Data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) and typologies (Patton 2002). The results showed substantial diversity in the student teachers’ conceptions of physicality and the ways these conceptions were embedded in their developing professional identities. The results also brought to light criticism directed at traditional notions of the body and physicality in PE and PE teacher education (PETE). We suggest that conception…

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 learnin…

Tunteita ja tuoksuja: Aikuiskasvatuksen tutkijatapaaminen Jyväskylässä

Aikuiskasvatuksen tutkijatapaamiseen mahtui iloisia kohtaamisia, kriittistä keskustelua, ajankohtaista tutkimustietoa ja käytännön innovaatioita.  Erityisesti tapahtuma toi tunteet aikuiskasvatuksen tutkimuskentälle – kenties ihan jäädäkseen.

What is agency? Conceptualizing professional agency at work

Abstract The concept of agency has become widely used in learning research, especially in studies addressing professional and workplace learning, but also in policy discussion on how to promote individually meaningful careers and life-courses amid rapid changes in working life. The purpose of this article is to provide a critical review of the multidisciplinary concept of agency, and to suggest a fruitful conceptualization of professional agency at work. The following questions are addressed: (i) How have the ontological characteristics and manifestations of agency been understood? (ii) How have the relationships between the social and individual aspects of agency been understood? We examin…

Ikääntyneet aikuiset kuntoutustyöntekijöiden puheessa

Artikkelissa kuvataan kuntoutustyöntekijöiden puhetta ikääntyneistä aikuisista ryhmämuotoisessa kuntoutuksessa. Aineisto koostuu kuudesta kuntoutustyöntekijöiden moniammatillisesta fokusryhmäkeskustelusta, jotka toteutettiin kuudessa kuntoutuslaitoksessa. Aineisto analysoitiin diskurssianalyysiä hyödyntäen. Kuntoutustyöntekijöiden puheesta tunnistettiin viisi puhetapaa, joista arviointipuhe liittyi sosiaali- ja terveysalan (sote) kontekstiin, ohjaus- ja riskipuhe asiakkaiden oppimisen ja muutoksen kontekstiin sekä toiseus- ja oivalluspuhe työntekijöiden asiantuntijuuteen. Kuntoutuksessa tavoitellusta asiakaslähtöisyyden periaatteesta huolimatta työntekijöiden arviointi-, ohjaus- ja riskipuh…

An Integrative Approach to Emotional Agency at Work

AbstractThe concept of agency has recently emerged as a fruitful construct in understanding organizational practices and development. However, agency has tended so far to be seen as a rational and goal-oriented phenomenon, with little attention paid to the role of emotions within it. There is thus a need for theoretical discussion on both agency and emotions in organizations, and also on how the two phenomena are related. This paper aims to introduce an elaborated conceptualization of emotional agency at work, based on recent theories on professional agency and emotions in organizational contexts. We suggest that emotional agency can be understood as the competence to perceive, understand, …

A Novel Instrument to Measure the Multidimensional Structure of Professional Agency

This study aimed to construct and validate a quantitative measurement instrument to determine the structure of professional agency in working life. Empirical data (N = 589) were collected via a web-based, theoretically informed questionnaire, within the professional domains of education, healthcare, rescue services, and information technology. The questionnaire items incorporated theoretically based dimensions of professional agency. The structure of professional agency was initially analysed via exploratory factor analysis. Thereafter, using exploratory structural equation modelling, the structure of professional agency was investigated with a view to confirmation and validation. The resul…

Integrating Self-Reports and Electrodermal Activity (EDA) Measurement in Studying Emotions in Professional Learning

Studies on emotions in learning have been mostly conducted through self-reporting questionnaires and interviews conducted after the learning situation, which seldom focus on professional workplace learning. Meanwhile, workplace and professional learning research has been introduced with emerging methods to capture the learning processes at multiple levels. Previous research on emotions has suggested that self-reports should be supplemented with psychophysiological data. Challenged by this, this chapter aims to present and discuss the integration of self-reported and psychophysiological data in studying emotions and professional learning. The empirical research data are obtained from five Fi…

Vaikutusmahdollisuuksista iloa työhön

An agency-promoting learning arena for developing shared work practices

Despite the emerging recognition of the pivotal role played by professional agency within work contexts, little is known about how agency is promoted and enacted in organised work-related learning settings. This chapter focuses on the work conference as an orchestrated agency-promoting learning arena. We understand professional agency as a necessary precondition of work-related learning, and we emphasise the potential of work conferences to activate and promote such agency. Our empirical study investigated three work conferences in education and healthcare organisations in Finland. Utilising assessments, the investigation addressed how the participants perceived the conditions for learning …

How do novice teachers in Finland perceive their professional agency?

This study investigated novice teachers’ perceptions of their professional agency during the initial years of their work in schools. The research questions were: (i) How do novice teachers perceive their professional agency within their work, and what do they see as the main restrictions and resources affecting that agency? (ii) How do novice teachers perceive their professional agency in the construction and renegotiation of their professional identities, and what do they see as the main restrictions and resources affecting their sense of agency? In theoretical terms, we adhere to a subject-centered sociocultural approach. This implies understanding subjects as active agents from a develop…

Emotions in Learning at Work : a Literature Review

The research elaborating emotions in organizational settings has increased considerably in recent years. However, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the role of emotions in learning at work. This review aimed to elaborate how emotions and learning are understood in the field of workplace studies, and how emotions and learning at work are related. For the review, 31 scientific articles were selected and analysed. We found that emotions and learning were understood in a range of ways in the articles. Emotions were mainly defined as emotional experiences and responses, and learning at work mainly referred to learning through participatory practices. In addition, the review illustrates th…

Emotional competence at work

PurposeThe study investigated emotional competence at work and elaborated emotional competence in relation to sociocultural aspects of emotions at work.Design/methodology/approachEmotional competence at work was explored via interviews, surveys and observations. The study was conducted over one year, during which an emotion-training intervention was conducted within a medium-sized company, operating in the healthcare sector.FindingsThe study shed light on emotional competence at work, identifying three domains: individual emotional competence, emotional competence within interactions and emotional competence embedded in workplace practices.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was con…

Kohtaa - osallista - edistä (KOE!) : toimijuusjohtamisen askeleet

Opettajien ammatillinen identiteetti, toimijuus ja sitoutuminen väljä- ja tiukkakytkentäisessä koulutusorganisaatiossa

This article examines teachers’ work and their professional identity negotiations in two different organisation: a vocational institute and a university department of teacher education. It illustrates how the administrative regulation of educational organisations can restrict and support teachers’ professional orientation, agency and commitment to their own organisation. The research data consisted of 24 open-ended narrative interviews, which were analysed applying qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. The analysed organisations represent different ways of managing and controlling teachers’ work, which lead the researchers to describe one of them a loosely-coupled organisation…

Teacher educators amid conflicting demands : tensions between individual and organizational development

Recent tensions and challenges in teacher education as manifested in curriculum discourse

This study seeks to contribute to discussions on the development of teacher education by analysing teacher educators' talk concerning curriculum reform. The curriculum is understood as a mediating construction between teacher educators and the social context, and the development of the curriculum is seen as a negotiation process between global discourses and local actors. Our aim was to understand the contrasting discourses used by teacher educators in talking about curriculum development, on the grounds that such discourses frame interpretations that direct the implementation of teacher education as a whole. Five contrasting interpretative repertoires were found. We illustrate these and di…

Opettajankoulutus - edessä vielä parempi tulevaisuus?

Vaikka suomalainen opettajankoulutus on saanut laajasti tunnustusta osakseen, haastavat monet yhteiskunnalliset muutokset tutkimaan opettajankoulutusta kriittisesti. Tarkastelen tässä artikkelissa opettajankoulutuksen kehittämisen ja muutoksen haasteita, joita selvitin helmikuussa 2012 julkaistussa väitöskirjatutkimuksessani. Keskeisinä opettajankoulutuksen muutoksen esteinä tutkimus paljasti kouluttajien ammatillisen identiteetin uudelleenneuvottelun vaikeudet, opettajankouluttajayhteisössä vallitsevan kilpailudiskurssin sekä ristiriidan kouluttajien ammatillisen kehittymisen ja organisaation kehittymisen välillä. Tulosten pohjalta esitän, että opettajankoulutuksen kehittämiseksi ja sen la…

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