Miten käsitteellistää ammatillista toimijuutta työssä?

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

Negotiating professional identity: Vocational teachers’ personal strategies in a reform context

Recent studies of learning through work have included how professional identities are formed through participation in work. However, we need a more elaborated understanding of how professional identities are negotiated at times of rapid change in working practices. This chapter examines the personal strategies that vocational teachers adopt, and the professional identity negotiations that occur, in response to requirements to change professional practices. We report on a study in which open-ended narrative interviews were conducted with sixteen Finnish vocational teachers. From the teachers’ accounts, we identified distinct personal strategies that were adopted to engage with change. The st…

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 …

Toimijuuden ja identiteetin yksilölliset ja sosiaaliset painotukset korkeakoulutettujen urapoluilla

Tarkastelemme tutkimuksessa toimijuutta ja identiteettiä korkeakoulutettujen uratarinoissa. korkeakoulutettujen urapolkuja tutkimalla tunnistamme sekä korkeakoulutettujen urien rakentumisen tapoja että yksilön ja yhteiskunnan asettamien odotusten ja tavoitteiden merkitystä urapoluilla. Aineisto koostui Töissä.fi-verkkopalvelun kautta kerätyistä korkeakoulutettujen uratarinoista (N = 462). Tutkimusaineiston narratiivisessa analyysissa tarkastelimme, millaisia urapolkuja uratarinoista oli tunnistettavissa sekä millaisia toimijuuden ja identiteetin yksilöllisiä ja sosiaalisia painotuksia uratarinat sisälsivät. Analyysin pohjalta loimme seitsemän uratyyppitarinaa, jotka nimesimme urapolun raken…

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…

Teacher trainees' experiences of the components of ICT competencies and key factors in ICT competence development in work-based vocational teacher training in Finland

International journal for research in vocational education and training 9 (2022) 2, S. 146-166

Teachers’ professional agency in a centralisation-decentralisation system and a hierarchical cultural context : the case of Hong Kong

Teachers are frontline actors in actualising educational innovations. In some contexts, teachers’ professional agency is undervalued. This study investigated teachers’ agency and its related workplace affordances in Hong Kong, which features a centralised-decentralisation education governance system, and a hierarchical work culture. The study was based on 21 semi-structured interviews with teachers, and employed a deductive thematic analysis. Agency enactment was categorised into 1) pedagogical agency within classrooms, and 2) relational agency in the professional community. The factors contributing to workplace affordances were grouped as pertaining to 1) the collegial community, 2) school…

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

Vocational teachers in the face of a major educational reform: individual ways of negotiating professional identities

This paper examines how vocational teachers negotiate their professional identity in the context of a major externally imposed curriculum reform. The focus is on the teachers’ orientations towards the reform in its initial stage. Sixteen Finnish vocational teachers were interviewed using open‐ended narrative interviews. The data were analysed in accordance with data‐driven qualitative analysis methods. From the teachers’ accounts, three main orientations towards the reform were identified: a resistant orientation, an inconsistent orientation and an approving orientation, each based on the teachers’ individual self‐positioning towards the reform. Each orientation is illustrated using two nar…

Emotional Agency at Work: The Development and Validation of a Measure

Despite intensive research on agency in education and work environments, the topic remains underexplored through the lens of emotions. This study conducted the development and validation of a quantitative measure to explore emotional agency in working life. Empirical data (N = 240) were collected via a web-based survey within the professional domains of healthcare and real estate services. The participants’ age, educational level, and gender corresponded to the domain-specific and general employee distribution in Finland. The questionnaire items were based on a theoretical construct of emotional agency at work. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that emotional agency includes two dimensi…

The power dance in the research interview: manifesting power and powerlessness

We examine the power that is manifested between interviewers and interviewees in research interviews. Our empirical examples are drawn from interviews conducted with: (a) a vocational teacher; and (b) a senior researcher. We analysed the manifestations of power both in the course of the interviews and across interviews. We found that power is exercised and distributed diversely and situationally between the interview participants (interviewer and interviewee) during the interviews. It appeared that in a given interview, the interplay between individual backgrounds and the interview setting was connected to the activities through which power was manifested, and that these activities played …

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…

Lastentarhanopettaja lasten autonomian tukijana varhaiskasvatuksessa

Pyrkimys autonomisuuteen on yksi ihmisen psykologisista perustarpeista, joka alkaa kehittyä noin kahdesta ikävuodesta eteenpäin. Autonomiaa on kuitenkin tutkittu empiirisesti hyvin vähän varhaiskasvatuksen kontekstissa. Tarkastelemme tässä laadullisessa tutkimuksessa 4–5-vuotiaiden lasten autonomiaa päiväkodissa lastentarhanopettajien näkökulmasta havainnointien ja haastatteluiden sekä lastentarhanopettajien päiväkirjojen ja kirjoitelmien kautta. Tutkimustehtävänämme on selvittää, miten lastentarhanopettajat ymmärtävät lapsen autonomian ja mitä pedagogisia keinoja he käyttävät autonomian tukemisessa. Tutkimusaineisto on analysoitu laadullista sisällönanalyysia ja narratiivista analyysia hyö…

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…

Professional agency in the stream of change: Understanding educational change and teachers' professional identities

The qualitative meta-study reported here investigated Finnish vocational teachers' professional agency amid an educational reform. Differences were found in teachers' agency regarding their work, their involvement with the reform, and their professional identity. The manifestations of agency could remain stable or could change over time, and agency drew on various resources (e.g. teacher identity and the organizational management culture). The theoretical conclusions encompass professional agency as multidimensional, largely individually varied, temporally imbued, and both socially and individually resourced. Based on the findings, an agency-centered approach is proposed as a means of under…

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…

The power dance in research interview. Manifesting power and powerless

We examine the power that is manifested between interviewers and interviewees in research interviews. Our empirical examples are drawn from interviews conducted with: (a) a vocational teacher; and (b) a senior researcher. We analysed the manifestations of power both in the course of the interviews and across interviews. We found that power is exercised and distributed diversely and situationally between the interview participants (interviewer and interviewee) during the interviews. It appeared that in a given interview, the interplay between individual backgrounds and the interview setting was connected to the activities through which power was manifested, and that these activities played a…

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!

Parental agency and related emotions in the educational partnership

This study investigated the understudied issue of parental agency and related emotions in the educational partnership in the context of Finnish early childhood education and care. We asked (i) what types of parental agency can be identified in the educational partnership and (ii) in what ways emotions are related to these types of agency. The narrative method was used to analyse the interview data of parents of children with difficulties in self-regulation. The findings indicate that parental agency in the educational partnership varied from proactive and confrontational to hindered. Typically, pleasant emotions were related to proactive and unpleasant emotions to confrontational parental a…

Between school and working life: Vocational teachers’ agency in boundary-crossing settings

Abstract This paper investigates agency among vocational teachers with reference to boundary-crossing between school and working life. Our study utilised interviews with sixteen Finnish vocational teachers. Adopting a narrative analysis approach, we found that the teachers had a variety of forms of exercising agency in terms of decisions deliberately taken, and the discourse and actions following these decisions. These forms were: (i) restricted agency, (ii) extensive agency, (iii) multifaceted balancing agency, (iv) situationally diverse agency, and (v) relationally emergent agency. The exercising of agency was intertwined with the main resources and constraints emerging from the teachers’…

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…

Trust in the educational partnership narrated by parents of a child with challenging behaviour

This study examined trust in educational partnership in the context of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland, from the viewpoint of parents of a child with challenging behaviour. Typically, such children have difficulties in regulating their behaviour and emotions. Semi-structured interviews with 23 parents were content-analysed in a narrative framework. The analysis revealed two critical elements of trust in educational partnership: (1) Child well-being in the day care centre, and (2) a supportive parent–educator relationship and collaboration. Critical factors in the first element of trust were educators’ respectful and good-quality relationships with the child and fair and…

Uraohjaajien osaaminen ja haasteet työelämän murroksessa

Artikkelissa tutkitaan uraohjaajien kokemuksia heidän tarvitsemastaan osaamisesta ja kohtaamistaan haasteista työelämän murroksessa. Osaamisen ja haasteiden tutkimuksella voidaan tunnistaa uraohjauksen kriittisiä kysymyksiä sekä lisätä ohjauksen laatua ja tehokkuutta. Aineisto koostuu yhdeksästä avoimesta asiantuntijahaastattelusta, jotka analysoitiin luokittelevalla sisällönanalyysillä. Uraohjaajien kokemukset tarvitsemastaan osaamisesta jakautuivat kahteen pääluokkaan: 1) uraohjauksen tuntemus ja soveltaminen, 2) uraohjaajien resilienssi ja metakognitiiviset kyvyt. Kokemukset työn haasteista jakautuivat kolmeen pääluokkaan: asiakasrajapinta, uraohjaajien toiminta ja yhteiskunnallinen viit…

Professional Agency, Identity, and Emotions While Leaving One’s Work Organization

This study investigated the enactment of professional agency in an emotionally troubled work context emerging from a conflicted relationship between the professional and the work organization. Narrative interviews with Finnish educators were utilized. The findings indicate that the enactment of agency was in part framed by the educators’ rational interpretations of the relationship between themselves and their employer, plus their work history and future prospects. However, it was simultaneously embedded with contradictory emotions, such as a sense of being undervalued, fear, and a sense of empowerment. Within this framework, multifaceted professional agency was enacted particularly via lea…

Ammatillinen toimijuus työelämän muutosvirrassa.

Työorganisaatioilta ja työntekijöiltä edellytetään jatkuvaa kehittymistä nykyajan työelämässä. Jatkuvan uudistamisen tuoksinnassa on oleellista pohtia ja tutkia, miten kehittäminen voi tapahtua kestävällä tavalla tukien yksilöiden aktiivista osallistumista, jaksamista ja identiteettityötä. Hallinnolliset määräykset ja ohjeistukset saattavat olla tehokkaita luomaan muutoksia työelämässä, mutta samalla uudistusten inhimilliset kärsimykset saattavat nousta liian suuriksi. – Katja Vähäsantasen väitöskirja Vocational teachers’ professional agency in the stream of change (Jyväskylän yliopisto 2013).

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…

Vocational teachers’ pathways in the course of a curriculum reform

Teachers face continuous changes, many of which significantly influence their professional identities and work practices. This study investigates Finnish vocational teachers’ pathways in the course of a curriculum reform. The data were obtained by interviewing 14 vocational teachers twice, i.e. at the initial and later stages of the reform. This study used a narrative approach to analyse the interviews as whole and also to illustrate variations between teachers. The teachers were found to exhibit distinctive pathways through the reform: an empowerment pathway, a critical but adaptive pathway, an open and expectant pathway, a successful transformation pathway, and a struggling pathway. The p…

The Narrative Approach to Research Professional Identity: Relational, Temporal, and Dialogical Perspectives

In this chapter, we present the narrative approach as applied in the field of professional learning. The specific aim is to present the methodological opportunities and concerns it raises in research on professional identity within the sociocultural frames of work environments. We utilise examples from empirical studies that have employed a range of narrative methods to collect and analyse datasets. The datasets include individuals’ written and spoken narratives, encompassing the told experiences of their identities, and the meanings underlying these. We illustrate how a particular strength of narrative research lies in its ability to portray temporal pathways through the phenomena under in…

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…

Professional identity in changing workplaces : Why it matters, when it becomes emotionally imbued, and how to support its agentic negotiations

This chapter addresses professional identity in the workplace. The relevance of the topic derives from current trends in working life, in which constant changes require continuous professional identity negotiations. In addition, employees are increasingly obliged to recognise and make visible their professional identity in order to navigate and survive in the complexities of working life. This chapter provides an overview of the conceptual frameworks, topics, and empirical evidence pertaining to professional identity, as presented in workplace learning literature. From this, it provides suggestions for researching and elaborating professional identity, with particular attention to relationa…

Vocational teachers' professional agency in the stream of change

Older rehabilitees’ life-course agency in Finnish gerontological rehabilitation

Aims: This study investigates gerontological rehabilitation sessions of Finnish rehabilitees in the framework of life-course agency from the perspectives of temporal orientation and agency. Methods: The research data were obtained by non-participatory observation in 11 individual goal-setting sessions between 11 rehabilitees and their personal counsellors. The data were analysed in accordance with data-driven, qualitative content and narrative analysis, with an emphasis on the life-course agency approach. Results: Four temporal orientations of older rehabilitees were identified in the rehabilitation sessions: (i) timeless, (ii) past, (iii) present, and (iv) life course. For each temporal or…

"Koulutuksesta löysin opettajuuteni alkusiemenen, jota olen kasvattanut myöhemmin opettajan urallani" : ammatillisen opettajankoulutuksen suorittaneiden mielipiteitä koulutuksesta

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…

Teacher–child relationships narrated by parents of children with difficulties in self-regulation

This study addresses the relationships between teachers and children (four to six years old) with difficulties in self-regulation from the parent's point of view. Narratives were constructed in 21 interviews with parents of children who have difficulties in self-regulation. The study focused on two questions: (i) What kinds of teacher–child relationships can be identified in the parents’ narratives? and (ii) How is the child positioned in this relational context? The teacher–child relationships found were labelled neutral, problematic and caring. Within these categories, the child was positioned in nine ways ranging from the child as troublesome to the child as unique. The study offers tool…

Agency and Learning in the Work of Software Professionals

This chapter addresses software professionals’ agency and learning in work characterized by a need for innovative learning and fluency in renewing work practices. The study presented was conducted with software professionals in a medium-sized Finnish company producing digital business applications. We applied a mixed-method approach to data collection and analysis. Regarding professional agency, we found a range of opportunities to influence work-related matters. The professionals were primarily able to influence their working hours and the order of their work tasks, but had fewer opportunities to influence customer projects, or their salary. To some extent they were able to develop themsel…

Teachers’ Identity Tensions and Related Coping Strategies : Interaction With the Career Stages and Socio-Political Context

When external requirements conflict with teachers’ personal beliefs and values, the resulting internal struggles can lead to identity tensions. Contributing to discussion on teachers’ identity development in a challenging context, this study investigated teacher identity tensions and related coping strategies in Hong Kong. We conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with qualified teachers and then performed a deductive thematic analysis of the data. We categorised the identity tensions as positioned on the micro or macro level, and distinguished the coping strategies as emotion-focused or problem-focused behaviours. The identity tensions and related coping strategies seemed to be associated…

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

Finnish and German student teachers’ motivations for choosing teaching as a career : The first application of the FIT-Choice scale in Finland

This study introduces and validates the Finnish version of the FIT-Choice scale and uses the scale to explore Finnish undergraduate students' motivations for choosing teaching as a career as well as their perceptions of teaching as a profession in comparison to German student teachers. The results replicated the FIT-Choice structure both in Finland and Germany. Sample comparisons revealed that motivations for teaching and perceptions of the teaching profession reflected both differences and similarities between Finland and Germany. The study offers novel information on student teachers’ motivational structure. peerReviewed

Theoretical and pedagogical perspectives on orchestrating creativity and collaborative learning

The role of teacher is increasingly related to designing and arranging collaborative learning situations in which fruitful and creative group work may occur. This thematic review presents recent studies on creativity and collaborative learning from the perspective of the teacher as conductor of learning processes. The precondition for the design and orchestration of these kinds of learning situations is analysing and understanding of creative and collaborative processes and their contextual adaption. Thus, the first section of this review focuses on the theoretical vantage points of creativity and collaborative learning mainly from socio-cultural perspective. Based on this theoretical groun…

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…

Finnish and German student teachers’ motivations for choosing teaching as a career. The first application of the FIT-Choice scale in Finland

Abstract This study introduces and validates the Finnish version of the FIT-Choice scale and uses the scale to explore Finnish undergraduate students' motivations for choosing teaching as a career as well as their perceptions of teaching as a profession in comparison to German student teachers. The results replicated the FIT-Choice structure both in Finland and Germany. Sample comparisons revealed that motivations for teaching and perceptions of the teaching profession reflected both differences and similarities between Finland and Germany. The study offers novel information on student teachers’ motivational structure.

Rehabilitation agency of older adults in group-based intervention

Aims: This study investigated the individual rehabilitation agency of older adults in a one-year group-based gerontological rehabilitation context. Here, rehabilitation agency is understood as being manifested when older adults make choices and decisions regarding their everyday lives, including notions of themselves. Methods: The data were obtained via non-participant observation of the final individual goal evaluation sessions of 38 older adults with their personal counselor. In these sessions, older adults discussed their rehabilitation outcomes, actions, choices and decisions during the rehabilitation year, along with their future in home settings. The data were analyzed using qualitati…

Professional identity in relation to vocational teachers’ work : an identity-centred approach to professional development

This paper reports a study on teachers’ professional identity and work in vocational education. The findings showed that vocational teachers’ work included vocational teaching within the school, developmental work, technology-enhanced work, professional duties outside the school, and educational duties within the school. Furthermore, the study revealed the harmonious and tensioned relationships between these elements of the work and teachers’ identities. Recognition of the nuanced nature of these relationships provides a perspective for promoting teachers’ professional development. From a practical perspective, there is a need to support vocational teachers’ identity work and the adoption o…

Multiple Forms of Professional Agency for (non)crafting of Work Practices in a Hospital Organization

In recent working life studies, professional agency is seen as pivotal to the development of work communities and work organizations. This paper addresses professional agency during a practicebased intervention (work conference) in a Finnish hospital setting. To develop work practices, the intervention sought to create a dialogical space for the promotion of collective professional agency. Here, we present an investigation of the manifestations of professional agency and how they emerged within and between professional groups. We also elaborate how professional positions frame the emergence of different manifestations of professional agency. The audio and video materials from the interventi…

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…

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Vocational teachers in the face of major educational reform: Individual ways of negotiating professional identities.

This paper examines how vocational teachers negotiate their professional identity in the context of a major externally imposed curriculum reform. The focus is on the teachers' orientations towards the reform in its initial stage. Sixteen Finnish vocational teachers were interviewed using open-ended narrative interviews. The data were analysed in accordance with data-driven qualitative analysis methods. From the teachers' accounts, three main orientations towards the reform were identified: a resistant orientation, an inconsistent orientation and an approving orientation, each based on the teachers' individual self-positioning towards the reform. Each orientation is illustrated using two nar…