Standardization meets practice : the case of integrating research-based work placement

• A local reform, with the vision to educate Sweden’s most employable students was adopted by the board at a Swedish university. An important means for reaching the vision was a work placement. Students in all 28 programs at the university should be guaranteed at least five weeks supervised research based practice and learning in companies and organizations. Following the decision, activities were initiated in all Higher education programs to implement the placement reform. To document strategy work, yearly interviews were conducted with the head of the programs, course heads and teachers. Syllabi were collected and changes kept track of. Program dialogues were followed using ethnographic field work methods. University and program strategizing is explored from three questions: 1/ how did staff make sense of and turn strategy into practice? 2) what resources became important to strategy work? and 3) what kind of placement, what kind of examinations, what kind of supervision etcetera were the result. A strategy as practice-perspective is used to explore what became of the standardized model for placement envisioned in the university boards strategy. The result show that standardized placement was not possible for the programs. Instead different understandings of the reform based on the programs different conditions, led to a variation in what kind of placement they introduced.

Ämnesord

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Case studies

ethnography

interdisciplinary

higher education

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)