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- Köpsén, Susanne, et al.
(författare)
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Becoming a forensic expert : Supervision for professionalization
- 2011
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Ingår i: Pushing Forward the Agenda: Emerging Issues in Working Life and Learning Research.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The professional knowledge of a forensic expert is highly specialized and a narrow professional area with high quality demands from the judicial system. How do you learn such special professional knowledge? How do you become a forensic expert? In this paper we present the findings from an ethnographical study of the only way to become a forensic expert in Sweden – an internal training program at the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science (SKL). In other countries you learn to be a forensic expert through higher education. Previous research concerning learning forensic science or becoming a forensic expert are scarce. The aim of this paper is to explore the development of professional knowledge for future forensic experts. Specifically, the paper investigates how the forensic expert trainees’ learn through the internal training program within SKL focusing the supervision at work. We have conducted observations and informal/formal interviews with five forensic expert trainees’ and their supervisors. By drawing on a socio culturally perspective on learning it is possible to get an understanding of the forensic expert trainee’s learning trajectory and professional identity formation, as well as the activities of supervision. The findings show that processes of supervision, professional language and the interplay between internal training courses and learning integrated in everyday work are central in order to understand the process of becoming a forensic expert. SKL has an extensive internal training program within a quality assurance system. Despite this, the findings show that the socio cultural knowledge and traditions within the different work practices have a significant impact on how the supervision and thus, the learning processes are being shaped. Furthermore, a large part of the professional knowledge is tacit and this impose high and challenging demands on the quality of supervision since the practice of forensic work is a part of the Swedish judicial system.
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| 3. |
- Köpsén, Susanne, 1952-, et al.
(författare)
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Learning in practice : Arrangements for learning and supervision for becoming a forensic expert
- 2012
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The profession of a forensic expert is a narrow field in which professional knowledge is highly specialised and must meet the judicial system’s demand for high quality. How does one obtain such knowledge? And furthermore, how does one arrange for the necessary education and training to become a forensic expert? In Europe, professional training to become a forensic scientist is available through Forensic Science degree programs in universities (Welsh & Hannis, 2011). In this report, we present findings from an ethnographical study (Köpsén & Nyström, 2011, 2012) of the only formal way to become a forensic expert in Sweden: an internal training program at the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science (SKL).This report is based on a study with the overall aim of investigating future forensic experts’ learning of professional knowledge and professional identity formation. In the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science (SKL), there is a structured internal training system for forensic expert trainees, which combines general forensic introductory courses for forensic experts with supervised learning in practice. The specific aim of the study was to investigate subject-specific supervision and how it interacts with the more general courses. The results of the study demonstrate that supervision and gradual learning in practice are crucial to the development of future professional forensic experts, and its interplay with the courses in the internal training program is poor. Our findings show there are different ways to understand and realise supervision. Therefore, the preconditions for learning professional forensic knowledge differ. We have presented these variations of learning in a model of supervision arrangements and relationships according to the distinctiveness of the learning and the relationship with the assigned supervisor and other forensic experts. Using examples of supervision, we have shown how various supervision activities relate to different aspects of learning and, thus, direct the learning of different aspects of professional knowledge. We have found that having a professional language is crucial to a skilled forensic expert, though the trainees’ development of such language is not comprehensive. From the findings, we can observe a “transitional movement” in how the supervision is staged, depending on the trainees’ experience, i.e., how long they have been trainees and their educational backgrounds. An additional finding is that the economic and material preconditions are significant as the conditions of supervising and learning.
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| 4. |
- Köpsén, Susanne, et al.
(författare)
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Learning in practice for becoming a professional forensic expert
- 2012
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Ingår i: Forensic Science International. - : Elsevier. - 0379-0738 .- 1872-6283. ; 222:1-3, s. 208-215
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study explores the professional development of future forensic experts. Specifically, it investigates how the forensic expert trainees learn through the internal training program at the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science with a focus on the supervision at work. The findings are drawn from an ethnographical study where five trainees and their supervisors have been observed and interviewed. By drawing on a socio cultural perspective on learning, the results show that supervision is crucial for professional development. Two types of activities and relations define how supervision is implemented. There is a “transitional movement” in how supervision is staged depending on the trainees’ gradual changes in participation in the work practice and increased experience. Forensic experts need skills and know-how to make wise and impartial judgments, i.e. a kind tacit professional practical knowledge, as well as the skill to communicate with other professionals. However, the development of a professional language is somewhat unspoken or planned. Becoming a forensic expert is a learning process in practice where supervision plays a decisive role in maintaining the professional knowledge in the judicial system. Therefore, supervision for supervising might be a valuable support for supervisors.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Nyström, Sofia, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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The practice architectures for becoming a forensic expert
- 2012
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Ingår i: ProPEL International Conference. Professions and Professional Learning in Troubling Times.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The profession of a forensic expert is a narrow professional area and the professional knowledge is specialized with high quality demands from the judicial system. The common way to become a forensic expert is through higher education. However, to become a professional forensic expert in Sweden the only formal way is the internal training program at the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science (SKL). The aim of this paper is to investigate the professional learning of forensic experts in such conditions, based on the findings from an ethnographical study of five forensic trainees’ and their supervisors’ participations in the program. Specifically, the paper investigates how the internal training program within SKL, i.e. forensic specific introductory courses and learning integrated in everyday work, is arranged in order for forensic expert trainees’ to learn the professional practice and become professional. By drawing on practice theory (Schatzki, 2002; Kemmis, e.g. 2009) we view the internal training program as practice architectures for learning the professional practice in terms of special arrangements of activities and relations within the professional practice of forensics. With this viewpoint it has been possible to explore how the different mediated preconditions, i.e. discursive, economical, material and social arrangements of the specific professional forensic practices prefigure the possibilities and constraints for developing a new professional practitioner, i.e. forensic expert. Thu, a central finding is that despite the institutional intention of common architectures for a training program the culturally and discursive “sayings”, “doings” and “relatings” in the specific professional practices shape different learning practices. This is presented in a model of arrangements for work and social connections for learning. It is also shown that becoming a forensic expert is fully entangled with a material practice such as technologies, tools and machines.
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