Search results for "narrative research"

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

2015

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…

Emotionally loaded identity and agency in Finnish academic work

2020

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…

Teachers as writing students: narratives of professional development in a leisure-time creative writing community

2022

The authors explored five in-service teachers’ experiences of professional development (PD) in Studies in Writing (30 ECTS programme at a Finnish open university) they participated in during their leisure time. Data consist of the teachers’ creative writings and semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to holistically determine how the participants associated the creative writing community with their PD. The following themes were created: (1) Me as a writer, (2) Teaching and pedagogy, and (3) Writing and emotions. To illustrate these findings, three creative narratives were composed based on data excerpts. These ethnodramatic dialogues gave voice to the teachers’…

Exploring teachers’ stories of writing : a narrative perspective

2018

This study takes a narrative perspective to examine teachers as writers and autobiographical creative writing as a way for promoting teachers’ professional development. In a creative writing group for Finnish primary and secondary school teachers, the teachers expressed themselves and explored their lives and identities through autobiographical creative writing. The aim of this study was to examine the stories the teachers tell about their relationship to writing and the goals they set for their professional and personal development in the writing group. Through thematic analysis, seven descriptive themes were found in teachers’ narratives of writing. Furthermore, based on the narrative ana…

Building natural science learning through youth science camps

2018

This study focuses on a youth science camp for pupils in sixth to ninth grades that is organized annually by the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The main idea of the science camp is to learn to do guided inquiry in nature. The study investigates the significance of science camp for encouraging young participants to learn science and how the camp supports their learning. The research method used was a survey. Altogether, 47 youth participated in the camp in 2012 and 2013. The results show that the participants wanted to learn more about science than secondary school could offer, and science camp had a positive impact on their interest in science. It was possible to introduce important conc…

Women's narratives on fibromyalgia, functioning and life events

2012

Performing the author/mother/merchant/wife: moving subject positions in Minna Canth's autobiography

2010

Reading autobiography as a performative act enables for the analysis of processes involved in constructing the self. It provides a space for analysing the ways in which gender, nationality, and other social locations of the subject are negotiated. In this article, I read the famous Finnish nineteenth-century playwright and author Minna Canth’s concise autobiography, focusing on various locations of the autobiographical subject in this rather laconic matter-of-fact text. My reading follows current trends in feminist autobiographical theorising as well as feminist politics of reading. I strive to deconstruct the interpretation of autobiographies as dichotomously fixed texts. I suggest a more …

To stay or to leave? Career story models of Finnish sports graduates

2021

Previous research has revealed the challenges of sports graduates. Of particular concern is the question of how sports graduates navigate these difficulties in the job market. This study sought to understand the modern careers of sports graduates by describing different career story models among sports degree graduates. Life story data collection was employed to capture the various influences affecting career paths. The data consisted of 59 career life stories collected from Finnish sports degree graduates who were recruited through an open writing invitation. Data were analysed with the narrative method. Five typical career story models were identified among Finnish sports degree graduates…

By accident or by design? : social enterprise leaders' stories of their career choice

2016

Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tulkita ja kuvata yhteiskunnallisten yritysten johtaji-en uranvalintaa. Uranvalinta johtamisen parissa yhteiskunnallisissa yrityksissä on melko vähän tutkittu aihe, jonka vuoksi aiheeseen on syytä perehtyä lisää kokonaisvaltaisemman ymmärryksen saavuttamiseksi. Yhteiskunnallisen yrityksen käsite on myös vielä jokseenkin tuntematon Suomessa, ja niinpä tämä tutkimus pyrkii lisäämään tietoisuutta yhteiskunnallisista yrityksistä suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys yhdistelee näkemyksiä johtamisesta yhteiskunnallisissa yrityksissä sekä uranvalinnasta. Keskeisimmät esitellyt teoriat ovat Hollandin tyyppiteoria, Scheinin ura-ankkuriteo…

The story models of physiotherapy students’ professional development. Narrative research

2014

The aim of this article is to investigate students’ narratives about their professional development process. This research brings new kind of knowledge to continuing learning, developing education and planning the curriculum in physiotherapy education. The European Qualification Framework (EQF) defines learning competences in education; qualitative research has a narrative approach. The material consists of eight voluntarily participating physiotherapy students’ portfolios written during their whole study time. The longitudinal data describes them as learners and their development process. The major findings are four main episodes in professional development: the previous studies, a new way…