Abstract
Background: Universities continue to experience pressure to prepare work-ready graduates. In Ontario, this has recently taken the form of new provincial funding metrics which include experiential education. This places more formal pressure on all provincial universities to foster experiential education. Purpose: This study focuses on the organizational dynamics within a selected university as it developed an Experiential Education Certificate (EEC). Methodology/Approach: Using a qualitative approach, this case study relies on multiple methods. Content analysis was used to analyze textual data that framed the EEC. Semi-structured interviews ( n = 12) with institutional actors were used to analyze how experiential education is framed administratively and practiced at the technical level of the university. Findings/Conclusions: Although the EEC reflected a management logic, it was not fully aligned with the academic logic of ground-level technical actors (e.g., professors). Institutionalizing experiential education has implications for multiple logics at play within universities and thus requires more “logic work” of those working within. Implications: This exploratory study lays the groundwork for further theorizing experiential education from an organizational perspective, namely, studying experiential education across disciplines, theorizing at the field level, and including administrators.
Highlights
Universities continue to experience pressure to prepare work-ready graduates
While some faculty expressed interest in further developing experiential education in their courses, some felt that an advanced teaching methodology such as experiential education was antithetical to their professional role as a researcher and would need to be further incentivized for them to consider adding it to their pedagogical toolkit
The findings showcase that reframing existing efforts does little to accomplish substantive change, as there was a difference between the value Central University placed on experiential education and how it is valued and responded to at the faculty level
Summary
In Ontario, this has recently taken the form of new provincial funding metrics which include experiential education. This places more formal pressure on all provincial universities to foster experiential education. Semi-structured interviews (n = 12) with institutional actors were used to analyze how experiential education is framed administratively and practiced at the technical level of the university. Institutionalizing experiential education has implications for multiple logics at play within universities and requires more “logic work” of those working within. Implications: This exploratory study lays the groundwork for further theorizing experiential education from an organizational perspective, namely, studying experiential education across disciplines, theorizing at the field level, and including administrators
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