Development Of Research Work Research Articles

Optimising the use of interactive whiteboards: an application of developmental work research (DWR) in the United Kingdom

There are concerns that the effective use of interactive whiteboard technology is being inhibited by its use only as a means of presentation. This article looks at the way in which a working group drawn from the university and school areas of mathematics teaching developed materials to enhance the pedagogic use of interactive whiteboard technology. The group worked according to the principles of developmental work research, used mainly in multi‐agency social policy planning. The multi‐disciplinary, structured and outcome‐oriented work was used to support what was considered by the participants to be effective professional development for all participants. Analysis of the approach according to culture, partnership, reflection and conceptual challenge offers evidence that cross‐sector experiential learning is mutually beneficial because it enhances both process and outcome.

Imaginary epistemic objects in integrated children's services

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the problem of achieving “organizational justice” for children within integrated children's services. Justice is understood, following Byers and Rhodes discussion of Levinas as respecting the “unique and indivisible” character of a given child.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical material reported here is drawn from a large study of interagency working in children's services in the UK. Data are taken from Developmental Work Research sessions. Methodological details are outlined in Daniels et al. and Leadbetter et al.FindingsThe key finding discussed here is that in order to balance the outcome measures used in children's services, participants use a further abstraction “the outcome of improved outcomes”. The logical and practical consequences of this abstraction are analysed.Originality/valueThe paper offers an empirically grounded contribution to conceptual debates about otherness and ethics in organization. In particular, it argues that a concern for the other need not preclude a high level of concrete categorization and minute target setting. The philosophical debate is seen to be “resolved” in practice.

From ‘activity’ to ‘labour’: commodification, labourpower and contradiction in Engeström’s activity theory

Engeström’s (1987, 1999) innovations in cultural-historical activity theory emphasise the role of contradictions in analysing and transforming learning in practice. This paper considers some of the problems and possibilities contained in his analytical understanding of contradictions, in relation to activity and to what he terms ‘expansive learning’ (Engeström, 2001, 2004, 2007). In doing so, it builds upon Engeström’s stated concern with theorising activities ‘in capitalism’. Its goal is to problematise the underlying practical definition of contradictions and the claims made for his ‘contradiction-driven’ analysis of work practices as a platform for transformation. This paper suggests that the definition of contradictions that underpins Engeström’s notions of ‘expansive’ learning and his ‘developmental work research’ methodology is restrictive because it underplays the wider social contradictions and antagonisms inherent in the commodification of labour-power. As such, while Engeström’s take on activity theory offers a valuable approach to reforming configurations of labour within the bounds of capitalist efficiency, its engagement with capitalism’s internal contradictions is uneven and, therefore, its claims to produce transformative, expansive learning are heavily qualified. The framework of this argument is provided by Postone’s (1996) reading of Marx’s Capital and Grundrisse as social theories of labour within capitalism and the extensive analyses of the social reproduction of labourpower developed by Rikowski (1999, 2000a, 2000b, 2002a, 2002b), Allman et al. (2000) and Dinerstein and Neary (2002). The paper ends with a consideration of the practical research possibilities emanating from its call to ground activity theory and its concern with contradictions in a sophisticated understanding of labourpower theory. It draws upon the UK-based Learning in and for Interagency Working Project’s (2004‑2008) intervention research in multiprofessional children’s service settings. It discusses the project’s rethinking of the notion of contradictions, the need to understand the division of labour as a tool in the social production of labour-power and the sense in which historical shifts in the ways that institutions organise collective labourpower make visible the social production of labourpower as an object of activity.

Exploring the Contradictions in Learning to Teach: The Potential of Developmental Work Research

This article discusses aspects of a programme intervention (the DETAIL project) in the learning processes of beginning English teachers, teacher mentors and a university‐based teacher educator. The...

Workplace learning in the New Zealand apple industry network

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe how, from 2004‐2006, a New Zealand research team experimented with the “change laboratory” learning process to create a new method of government policy development and implementation, referred to as “practice‐making”. The apple industry in Hawke's Bay was chosen because of the level of tension among government agencies and small/medium‐sized firms in the industry, particularly around the scarcity of seasonal labour, amid growing concerns about the possible collapse of the industry.Design/methodology/approachThe team stimulated a cycle of expansive learning among the network of activity systems in the industry. Laboratory participants were growers, labour contractors, pack house operators, quality controllers, horticultural consultants and government officials. The expansive learning cycle is a core concept in developmental work research (DWR) and cultural‐historical activity theory (CHAT).FindingsParticipants created a shared “object” for apple production and its government policy and regulation built around quality, making a substantive shift from adaptive learning to transformational learning, and creating a major redesign of the industry. Many of the new practices are now being implemented in the industry and government.Practical implicationsThe CHAT/DWR approach seems particularly well suited for complex problem solving in any network where there are intractable systems contradictions and a strong desire among participants to make real change.Originality/valueIt is understood that this is the first time a change laboratory process has been used for government “practice‐making” with industry, in contrast with traditional policy development and implementation that frequently does not address systemic problems.

Learning in and for cross‐school working

In this study we report some of the outcomes of a study of professional learning that took place in cross school partnerships as they worked towards promoting creativity in schools. The methodology developed by Engeström and his colleagues at The Centre for Developmental Work Research in Helsinki was adopted. This form of intervention involves the preparation and facilitation of workshops in which the underlying structural contradictions that are in play in emergent activities are highlighted and articulated in such a way that participants may engage with what may otherwise remain hidden and unexamined tensions. This approach is based on the writings of the early 20th‐century Russian school of social scientists—Vygotsky, Luria and Leontiev. A principal claim is that the development of creativity requires tools and contexts for such innovatory forms of practice. This study suggests that this claim is a partial representation of the development of creative activity.

Professional learning within multi-agency children's services: researching into practice

Background This article is concerned with professional learning within multi-agency settings. Since the publication of the government document Every child matters in 2003, professionals involved in working with children and young people have been moving into newly organized services that are required to deliver improved services for vulnerable children and their families. Although new ways of professional working are described in the plethora of government guidance that has followed Every child matters, there has been little examination of how this is being achieved in different teams around the country. Purpose This paper describes a current national research project, ‘Learning in and for Inter-agency Working’, which is investigating new ways of learning that develop, while teams of professionals work together around children and young people who are at risk of social exclusion. Programme description The research project is theoretically based and draws upon sociocultural and activity theory research to understand the practices that develop within the different agencies involved. The paper describes the derivation of the theory and the particular aspects of activity theory that are central to the project. In particular, the use of developmental work research (DWR), as the method of intervention with a number of local education authorities, is described and explained. Sample Some of the early work undertaken within phases 3 and 4 of a five-stage project which began in 2004 and ends in 2007 is described. Five different inter-agency teams of professionals working as part of Children's Services, from different geographical locations in England are the participants in the study. Design and methods The research uses activity theory to structure a series of DWR workshops with members of the multi-agency teams. Ethnographic data, including observations and interviews, are collected and form the subject-matter of the workshops. Results The data gathered are used to facilitate workshops where participants discuss their developing working practices and plan changes. The reporting phase of the project, where the findings across all sites will be analysed and summarized is not until mid-2007. However, early themes emerging from the research are included in the paper. These themes include: issues around co-location and co-working, evolving of professional identities, discussion of divisions of labour and professional expertise. These are described and illustrated using data from the research project. Conclusions As this is still ‘work in progress’ no firm conclusions can be drawn. However, it has become clear that new ways of thinking about professional working with children and families is necessary as old ways of working do not necessarily provide better outcomes for children.

From developmental-constructivism to socio-cultural theory and practice

In recent years, sociocultural theory has become an increasingly popular theoretical explanation for development and learning in early childhood education. The articulation of sociocultural theory to practice by teachers used to a predominately developmental-constructivist theoretical perspective represents an area of emerging research interest. This article examines the appropriation of sociocultural theory by a group of Australian early childhood educators participating in a professional development program informed by Developmental Work Research (DWR). The DWR methodology offers the opportunity to examine the processes involved for educators when learning to operate within a new conceptual framework and the implications this holds for their practice. The findings suggest that appropriation of a new theoretical framework such as sociocultural theory involves educators critiquing and analysing existing practices, participating in opportunities to implement new models of work in addition to reflection on new ways of seeing children, growth, learning and development.

Testing a theoretical framework for interdisciplinary IT evaluation: The case of Finnish Electronic Prescription

This article describes a multidisciplinary framework and its use in the evaluation of a national medical e-;Prescription system pilot in Finland. The framework was based on three theoretical concepts: activity system, actor network and development life cycle. These concepts have been developed within activity theory, developmental work research and sociology of technology. The framework was used to guide the constructive evaluation of the co-;development of technology and services from different stakeholders' perspectives.

What does it take to replace an old functioning information system with a new one?: A case study

Purpose To investigate the case of a municipal wound care practice and the process of designing a specific computer documentation record system. In carrying out our kind of action research, creation of the system that integrate digital photos, was supposed to remake the old wound care documentation system and transform it into a more advanced and unified tool. Methods Ethnographic studies were conducted before and parallel to the design work. Nurse practitioners were involved in design and actively determining essentials of the computer artefact. Developmental Work Research (DWR) is the framework against which data from the work practice and system development where analyzed and interpreted. Results First, an old-fashioned information system (IS) within health care work will not successfully be replaced by a new one, unless the new is better “as a whole”, that is, better supports work practices of a range of occupational and professional workers. Second, when designing information system for the public sector, system designers will almost always face dilemmas based on a contradiction between central, high level interest and a local level work-practice perspective. Discussion Our study reveals that the work practice of the municipal nurses is characterized by three distinctive features: High mobility, the need for face-to-face interaction in different locations, and a great variety of artefact usage. This implies that a new information system has to be “better as a whole” dealing with those characteristics.

Fast Times and Digital Literacy: Participation Roles and Portfolio Construction within Instant Messaging

The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of adolescent use of instant messaging. Grounded in the New Literacy Studies stance that literacy is a social practice embedded in local contexts and informed by global ideologies (Street, 1995), I argue that participation in digital literacies such as instant messaging has implications for how wired youth are being prepared for participation in today's society. By using cultural historical activity theory and the activity system (Engeström, 1987a; Engeström & Middleton, 1996; University of Helsinki Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research, n.d.) as the unit of analysis, I posit that instant messaging provides a space for participation in the roles of text producer, consumer, and distributor. Drawing on Gee's (2000a, 2000c, 2000d) descriptions of fast capitalism and shape-shifting portfolio people, I suggest that the 3 text roles contribute to the participant's portfolio or collection of attributes, achievements, and skills that can be rearranged to meet the demands of changing contexts.

The concept of habit in the analysis of situated actions

The paper presents a new framework for the analysis of situated action from a cultural point of view. The methodology is named the Core-Task Analysis. Its aim is to promote understanding of the core content of particular work activity and the dynamics of the construction of situated actions in complex, dynamic and uncertain environments. The methodology also aims at evaluating working practices and culture by providing a way to analyse the internal good of practices. The CTA approach draws on the cultural–historical theory of activity and its current application in the developmental work research. It also utilizes functional modelling of the constraints of work domains to identify the environmental affordances for action. The innovative feature of the approach—that could be labelled an ecological one—is to complement activity theoretical analysis by exploiting the pragmatic conception of habit. This solution provides an empirical way of analysing situated action and operations in connection with their societal meaning and motivation. A study of the anaesthetists’ actions in clinical situations is utilised to demonstrate the Core-Task Approach.

Transforming learning and knowledge creation on the shop floor

Current methods of grassroots level organisational learning relate learning to the incremental, linear development of expertise and mastery of production processes. In the conditions of rapid technological and market development, however, the challenges of learning that workers encounter change qualitatively as a new business develops. Different forms of learning are needed in different phases of the cycle of transformation. We argue that learning by incremental process enhancement is a specific form of learning that corresponds to the specific learning challenges of one of the phases of the cycle of transformation of a business concept. We also maintain that a new meta-level method is needed for identifying the change of phase of the cycle of transformation and for mastering the needed changes of the method of collective learning at the grassroots level. In this paper, we introduce such a new intervention method, the competence Laboratory. We will discuss the difference between learning and development in the continuous improvement of processes and the kind of qualitative transformation of the work concept which the Competence Laboratory is designed for. We will explain the Developmental Work Research methodology for researching and developing work practices the Competence Laboratory is based on, as well as the method itself. Using data gathered in the Competence-Laboratory process in a telecommunications company, we will show how the challenges of learning of a team of technicians changed as the business activity developed and how the team transformed its way of learning. We will also discuss the role of Competence Laboratory in this transformation.

Writing Groups, Change and Academic Identity: Research development as local practice

The development of the research potential of university staff has been given less attention than many other aspects of professional development, particularly teaching development. Yet there is an important need for the development of staff in the research role in the light of growth of higher education and changes to the organisation of the sector in many countries. This article examines one strategy for research development: the use of writing groups. It argues that writing is best seen as a starting point, rather than an endpoint, of the research process and hence that fostering academic writing is a useful place to do research development work. The article provides details of the use of a number of writing groups over three years in a particular faculty and explores the responses of leaders and participants. It identifies factors important in the use of this strategy and focuses on the contextual conditions required for initiatives of this kind to be effectively implemented.

Creating tools for farmers' learning: an application of developmental work research

This paper describes how the methodology of developmental work research, originating from cultural–historical activity theory, was applied in an intervention study of organic vegetable farming. Analysis of disturbances occurring in practice and of the developmental histories of two farms served as basis for modeling organic vegetable farming as an activity system. Contradictions within the activity system revealed that sustainable use of natural resources on the one hand and entrepreneurial integration into society on the other hand were the two major learning challenges faced by the farmers. Learning tools created and used in the study are the special focus of this paper. These are the models of an activity system, the zone of proximal development, strategies for increasing product volume and three orientations towards farm workers. The methodology offers means for problem definition in research and development projects, and enables the formation of non-deterministic directions of development for organic vegetable farms.

Editorial

Editorial

A Developmental Work Research (DWR) Study of Team and Organisational Learning at DHL Worldwide Express

The environment in which New Zealand businesses and public agencies operate is volatile, complex and uncertain. Organisations face a wide and competing range of demands. Managers and employees need to collaborate across functions, business units and teams. Practical research approaches are needed to help support them.This paper illustrates how a developmental work research (DWR) approach can support business process improvements and organisational/earning in continuously-changing, complex environments. We present findings from a PGSF study of cross-functional team problem-solving and learning at DHL Worldwide Express in Christchurch between April1997 and June 1998. The study used DWR methods, including analysis of videotaped meetings, developed at the University of Helsinki and the University of California San Diego by Engestrom and his colleagues (1996b).We describe how DWR was used to: analyse a process improvement initiative, or 'problem-trajectory', and how disturbances and tensions within this work activity reveal the underlying contradictions in DHL's operational and training systems; and identify opportunities for comprehensive system innovations that have a marked impact on productivity, efficiency and customer service.

Development of Research Work at SSLM, Trieste

Abstract The paper starts with a description of the historical evolution which led the SSLM to initiate interpretation research. It then describes research activities done within the School, and outlines the advantages for the students of such an endeavor as conducted in partial fulfillment of graduation requirements.