title: Using cooperative education and work-integrated education to provide career clarification

authors: Zegwaard, Karsten E.

subjects: work-integrated education

abstract: When students commence university studies they typically choose subjects that are of interest to them, and hold only vague notions of intended career paths. However, some universities offer work-integrated learning degrees (WIL), programs that require students to undertake relevant practical work experience by way of work placements, internships or sandwich degrees. The underlying notion of these degrees is that learning occurs, as Lave and Wenger (1991) argue, by way of legitimate peripheral participation, where the student as the ‘newcomer’ works alongside a practising expert (the ‘old timer’). As the student becomes more engaged with workplace practices, he or she begins to learn workplace norms by way of mediated action and situated learning. These workplace norms include things such as the use of workplace-specific language, and particular methodological techniques unique to that workplace (Eames & Cates, 2011). Past research has shown that work placements can greatly enhance career clarification for students (Dressler & Keeling, 2011), and that students gradually become enculturated into a community of practice. Recent research in our group suggests that WIL programs also allow the development greater awareness of career paths. This research indicates, for example, that for some students work placements provide clarity about skills and qualifications needed to become a research scientist – subsequently providing motivation to complete graduate studies. Several OECD reports highlight the need for more PhD level scientists and engineers, and we argue here that WIL programs provide a career clarification that is more convincing than any amount of career counselling.

text: Using cooperative education and work-integrated education to provide career clarification When students commence university studies they typically choose subjects that are of interest to them, and hold only vague notions of intended career paths. However, some universities offer work-integrated learning degrees (WIL), programs that require students to undertake relevant practical work experience by way of work placements, internships or sandwich degrees. The underlying notion of these degrees is that learning occurs, as Lave and Wenger (1991) argue, by way of legitimate peripheral participation, where the student as the ‘newcomer’ works alongside a practising expert (the ‘old timer’). As the student becomes more engaged with workplace practices, he or she begins to learn workplace norms by way of mediated action and situated learning. These workplace norms include things such as the use of workplace-specific language, and particular methodological techniques unique to that workplace (Eames & Cates, 2011). Past research has shown that work placements can greatly enhance career clarification for students (Dressler & Keeling, 2011), and that students gradually become enculturated into a community of practice. Recent research in our group suggests that WIL programs also allow the development greater awareness of career paths. This research indicates, for example, that for some students work placements provide clarity about skills and qualifications needed to become a research scientist – subsequently providing motivation to complete graduate studies. Several OECD reports highlight the need for more PhD level scientists and engineers, and we argue here that WIL programs provide a career clarification that is more convincing than any amount of career counselling.

year: 2011

title: Problems and possibilities: Exploring paradigms for mixed methods research

authors: McChesney, Katrina

abstract: Presented online at the Cancelled Conference Conversations on August 11, 2020

text: Problems and possibilities: Exploring paradigms for mixed methods research Presented online at the Cancelled Conference Conversations on August 11, 2020

year: 2020

title: To act or not to act? That is the question!

authors: Bruce Ferguson, Pip

abstract: The year was 2003. I was a new Research Manager working in a Māori tertiary institution that had a history of inequitable treatment by government, through not receiving establishment funding that had gone unproblematically to non-Māori institutions. Repeating a common pattern in New Zealand, our government had decided to implement a research funding scheme, to be measured at the level of the individual academic. My institution’s decision to participate in the PBRF was not without its difficulties, and it is here that the ethics of participation become problematic. This chapter is about our ability to articulate our values, to show how we work these out in our practice, and how we are accountable to ourselves and others for that practice. Would I, with the benefit of hindsight, have encouraged my institution to enter the PBRF again?

text: To act or not to act? That is the question! The year was 2003. I was a new Research Manager working in a Māori tertiary institution that had a history of inequitable treatment by government, through not receiving establishment funding that had gone unproblematically to non-Māori institutions. Repeating a common pattern in New Zealand, our government had decided to implement a research funding scheme, to be measured at the level of the individual academic. My institution’s decision to participate in the PBRF was not without its difficulties, and it is here that the ethics of participation become problematic. This chapter is about our ability to articulate our values, to show how we work these out in our practice, and how we are accountable to ourselves and others for that practice. Would I, with the benefit of hindsight, have encouraged my institution to enter the PBRF again?

year: 2013