Elite university admissions are administered by a range of organizational actors depending on national and institutional contexts. While the outcomes of high-stakes elite university admissions have been studied extensively, the opaque admissions selection process remains undertheorized and understood. Using theories of professions and systems theory to examine unique qualitative interview data from admissions selectors in both the U.S. and England, this paper sheds light on the opaque decision-making of elite university admissions shaped by professional contexts and organizational dynamics. We find that the self-regulated profession of professors and the less autonomous professional staff selectors influence the decision-making processes of elite university admissions. Understanding elite university admissions based on the macro/meso-context of professions and their organizational system structure offers a theoretically original approach for future research and the potential to create more equitable admissions processes through new change strategies.
{"title":"The Power of Professors and Professionals: How Professions Shape Organizational Systems in Elite University Admissions","authors":"Anna Mountford-Zimdars, Jeffrey K. Grim","doi":"10.7577/pp.4691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.4691","url":null,"abstract":"Elite university admissions are administered by a range of organizational actors depending on national and institutional contexts. While the outcomes of high-stakes elite university admissions have been studied extensively, the opaque admissions selection process remains undertheorized and understood. Using theories of professions and systems theory to examine unique qualitative interview data from admissions selectors in both the U.S. and England, this paper sheds light on the opaque decision-making of elite university admissions shaped by professional contexts and organizational dynamics. We find that the self-regulated profession of professors and the less autonomous professional staff selectors influence the decision-making processes of elite university admissions. Understanding elite university admissions based on the macro/meso-context of professions and their organizational system structure offers a theoretically original approach for future research and the potential to create more equitable admissions processes through new change strategies.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46074907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article we examine how therapeutic culture disseminates into and affects teacher education in Norway. This is done through a close examination of knowledge practices revolving around the term psychosocial. Based on fieldwork data and drawing on Karin Knorr Cetina’s concept of epistemic objects, we analyse how the psychosocial is practised, taught, and interpreted in a Norwegian primary and secondary teacher education institution. We identify three key epistemic characteristics of the psychosocial: ubiquity, emotional orientation, and self-centeredness. Due to its oscillation between compatibility and friction, the psychosocial is both nurturing and disruptive, intuitive, and demanding, meaningful and alienating. More broadly, the application of the psychosocial in teacher education can be understood in light of the interplay between intellectualisation and emotionalisation processes in modern societies. By providing insight into a previously unexplored area, the article contributes to new understandings of the changing cultural conditions of the teaching profession.
{"title":"The Psychosocial in Norwegian Teacher Education in Light of Epistemic Objects and Therapeutic Culture","authors":"Gro Mathias, Øyvind Førland Standal","doi":"10.7577/pp.5278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.5278","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we examine how therapeutic culture disseminates into and affects teacher education in Norway. This is done through a close examination of knowledge practices revolving around the term psychosocial. Based on fieldwork data and drawing on Karin Knorr Cetina’s concept of epistemic objects, we analyse how the psychosocial is practised, taught, and interpreted in a Norwegian primary and secondary teacher education institution. We identify three key epistemic characteristics of the psychosocial: ubiquity, emotional orientation, and self-centeredness. Due to its oscillation between compatibility and friction, the psychosocial is both nurturing and disruptive, intuitive, and demanding, meaningful and alienating. More broadly, the application of the psychosocial in teacher education can be understood in light of the interplay between intellectualisation and emotionalisation processes in modern societies. By providing insight into a previously unexplored area, the article contributes to new understandings of the changing cultural conditions of the teaching profession.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48408993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In a neoliberal turn, the government of Ontario cut more than $750 million in funds that were traditionally received by pharmacies through dispensing medication. These funds were replaced with a state-funded program that would reimburse pharmacists for professional services related to patient care. The problem facing professional elites from Ontario pharmacy’s advocacy body was how to govern members of a self-regulating profession to switch subjectivities (identities) from the traditional dispenser of medication to providing patient care for profit. We address a gap in the literature and pose the question, how are the rank and file of allied healthcare professions governed by professional elites to become responsibilized subjects who will adopt state/profession agendas? Using a Foucauldian governmentality framework, our findings reveal that the rank and file are governed by elites through two technologies: resilience and value making possible a new “legitimate” pharmacist subjectivity related to the market and health care sustainability.
{"title":"Governing Professionals Through Discourses of Resilience and Value: A New Legitimation for Ontario Pharmacists","authors":"T. Mickleborough, L. Muzzin, M. A. Martimianakis","doi":"10.7577/pp.4993","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.4993","url":null,"abstract":"In a neoliberal turn, the government of Ontario cut more than $750 million in funds that were traditionally received by pharmacies through dispensing medication. These funds were replaced with a state-funded program that would reimburse pharmacists for professional services related to patient care. The problem facing professional elites from Ontario pharmacy’s advocacy body was how to govern members of a self-regulating profession to switch subjectivities (identities) from the traditional dispenser of medication to providing patient care for profit. We address a gap in the literature and pose the question, how are the rank and file of allied healthcare professions governed by professional elites to become responsibilized subjects who will adopt state/profession agendas? Using a Foucauldian governmentality framework, our findings reveal that the rank and file are governed by elites through two technologies: resilience and value making possible a new “legitimate” pharmacist subjectivity related to the market and health care sustainability.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41410927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines narratives about the teaching profession and teacher unions that Swedish teachers jointly produce in two teachers’ rebellion groups on Facebook, which is followed by a total of around 20,000 teachers. A sample of 33 posts and 2,445 comments were analysed using a narrative approach. The findings highlight narratives in which teachers wish to return to “the good old days”, struggle with everyday frustrations, call for a strike as an immediate solution, and describe hypothetical futures presenting the opportunity for proactive action and call teacher unions to dialogue rather than wait for them to satisfy the teachers’ demands.
{"title":"Narratives of Teachers and Teacher Unions in Swedish Facebook Rebellion Groups","authors":"Annica Löfdahl Hultman, Håkan Löfgren","doi":"10.7577/pp.5224","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.5224","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines narratives about the teaching profession and teacher unions that Swedish teachers jointly produce in two teachers’ rebellion groups on Facebook, which is followed by a total of around 20,000 teachers. A sample of 33 posts and 2,445 comments were analysed using a narrative approach. The findings highlight narratives in which teachers wish to return to “the good old days”, struggle with everyday frustrations, call for a strike as an immediate solution, and describe hypothetical futures presenting the opportunity for proactive action and call teacher unions to dialogue rather than wait for them to satisfy the teachers’ demands.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42123811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Performance appraisal interviews are a distinct feature of modern work organisations. A generic organisational script, appraisals have also been adopted by traditional professions within old religious institutions. Based on the theory of institutional logics, this article aims at providing new knowledge about the interplay of professionalism and managerialism in pastoral appraisals. It addresses the following research question: How do professional and managerial logics intersect in performance appraisal interviews of pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway? This study clarifies the function, contents and ambiguity of appraisals by interviewing pastors and their leaders and analysing their experiences and expectations of appraisals. The author discusses how ideal-typical professional and managerial logics are demarcated and hybridised in appraisals. With the church in a state of transition, this study shows how the pastor profession constructs itself in appraisals by drawing on both logics yet primarily safeguarding professionalism.
{"title":"Old Wine in New Wineskins: Professionalism and Managerialism in the Performance Appraisal Interviews of Pastors in the Church of Norway","authors":"Stephen Sirris","doi":"10.7577/pp.5263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.5263","url":null,"abstract":"Performance appraisal interviews are a distinct feature of modern work organisations. A generic organisational script, appraisals have also been adopted by traditional professions within old religious institutions. Based on the theory of institutional logics, this article aims at providing new knowledge about the interplay of professionalism and managerialism in pastoral appraisals. It addresses the following research question: How do professional and managerial logics intersect in performance appraisal interviews of pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway? This study clarifies the function, contents and ambiguity of appraisals by interviewing pastors and their leaders and analysing their experiences and expectations of appraisals. The author discusses how ideal-typical professional and managerial logics are demarcated and hybridised in appraisals. With the church in a state of transition, this study shows how the pastor profession constructs itself in appraisals by drawing on both logics yet primarily safeguarding professionalism.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41457825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article presents post-structural narrative methodologies to examine teachers’ agency. According to previous research, agency is important for the learning and well-being of teachers. However, post-structuralism has questioned the assumption of agency as being located in the individual and has claimed a more entwined and relational perspective. The article disturbs clear-cut categorisations of teachers’ agency as strong or weak and argues for examining narrative practice because teachers use a variety of grammatical resources that are not inherently personal but are entwined with cultural narratives. This methodological approach reveals how teachers appear agentic and vulnerable at the same time. Thereby, it helps illustrate multifaceted views of the teaching profession.
{"title":"Methodological Insights on Teachers’ Professional Agency in Narratives","authors":"M. Heikkilä","doi":"10.7577/pp.5038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.5038","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents post-structural narrative methodologies to examine teachers’ agency. According to previous research, agency is important for the learning and well-being of teachers. However, post-structuralism has questioned the assumption of agency as being located in the individual and has claimed a more entwined and relational perspective. The article disturbs clear-cut categorisations of teachers’ agency as strong or weak and argues for examining narrative practice because teachers use a variety of grammatical resources that are not inherently personal but are entwined with cultural narratives. This methodological approach reveals how teachers appear agentic and vulnerable at the same time. Thereby, it helps illustrate multifaceted views of the teaching profession.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43184407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There is widespread agreement that the art/science dichotomy is obsolete; professional practice must accommodate both experience-based judgment and evidence-based tools. However, there is little agreement on what this reconciliation entails, partly because we lack a conceptualization of the professional agency involved. What kind of intellectual ability is needed for the translation of research into practice? This article argues that we need a new conception of research literacy, where the distinct issues of application to practice are addressed. By first replacing the art/science dichotomy with a craft model of professional practice, the article explains how research literacy should be conceived as a virtue that preserves the integrity of the domain of expertise. This virtue is served by a set of sensitivities that enable professionals to embed evidence-based tools into practice in a collaborative and situationally attuned way. The craft-oriented conception of research literacy is explored with examples from medicine and teaching.
{"title":"The Research Literacy of Professionals: Reconciling Evidence-Based Practice and Practical Wisdom","authors":"Andreas Eriksen","doi":"10.7577/pp.4852","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.4852","url":null,"abstract":"There is widespread agreement that the art/science dichotomy is obsolete; professional practice must accommodate both experience-based judgment and evidence-based tools. However, there is little agreement on what this reconciliation entails, partly because we lack a conceptualization of the professional agency involved. What kind of intellectual ability is needed for the translation of research into practice? This article argues that we need a new conception of research literacy, where the distinct issues of application to practice are addressed. By first replacing the art/science dichotomy with a craft model of professional practice, the article explains how research literacy should be conceived as a virtue that preserves the integrity of the domain of expertise. This virtue is served by a set of sensitivities that enable professionals to embed evidence-based tools into practice in a collaborative and situationally attuned way. The craft-oriented conception of research literacy is explored with examples from medicine and teaching.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44512615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Professions are regulated in the public interest, but precisely what the term “public interest” means can vary across time and place. Research exploring changes to professional regulation in the West has begun to identify such shifts: for instance, highlighting the emphasis on consumer satisfaction and public protection over other potential meanings of the public interest. To understand these societal shifts and their implications for professional regulation, this article first reviews neo-Weberian theories of rationalization, and empirical literature. Subsequently, it presents findings from interviews with regulatory leaders across six Canadian provinces to determine if the trends in rationalization identified are reflected in leaders’ accounts of professional regulation in the public interest. Interviews reveal that many leaders define the public interest in ways consistent with technical rationality, including a safety lens and consumer orientation; however, there is also evidence of broader meanings and values. The implications of these findings are discussed.
{"title":"What is the Public Interest in Professional Regulation? Canadian Regulatory Leaders’ Views in a Context of Change","authors":"T. Adams","doi":"10.7577/pp.4962","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.4962","url":null,"abstract":"Professions are regulated in the public interest, but precisely what the term “public interest” means can vary across time and place. Research exploring changes to professional regulation in the West has begun to identify such shifts: for instance, highlighting the emphasis on consumer satisfaction and public protection over other potential meanings of the public interest. To understand these societal shifts and their implications for professional regulation, this article first reviews neo-Weberian theories of rationalization, and empirical literature. Subsequently, it presents findings from interviews with regulatory leaders across six Canadian provinces to determine if the trends in rationalization identified are reflected in leaders’ accounts of professional regulation in the public interest. Interviews reveal that many leaders define the public interest in ways consistent with technical rationality, including a safety lens and consumer orientation; however, there is also evidence of broader meanings and values. The implications of these findings are discussed.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42894113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
When external requirements conflict with teachers’ personal beliefs and values, the resulting internal struggles can lead to identity tensions. Contributing to discussion on teachers’ identity development in a challenging context, this study investigated teacher identity tensions and related coping strategies in Hong Kong. We conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with qualified teachers and then performed a deductive thematic analysis of the data. We categorised the identity tensions as positioned on the micro or macro level, and distinguished the coping strategies as emotion-focused or problem-focused behaviours. The identity tensions and related coping strategies seemed to be associated with teachers’ career stages. We further found identity tensions to be related to the school’s sociocultural environment and to the specific political and societal forces in the region. The study demonstrated the need for continuous and differentiated support catering for teachers’ needs, and highlighted the specific social-political influences on professional identity development.
{"title":"Teachers’ Identity Tensions and Related Coping Strategies: Interaction With the Career Stages and Socio-Political Context","authors":"Josephine Lau, Katja Vähäsantanen, K. Collin","doi":"10.7577/pp.4562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7577/pp.4562","url":null,"abstract":"When external requirements conflict with teachers’ personal beliefs and values, the resulting internal struggles can lead to identity tensions. Contributing to discussion on teachers’ identity development in a challenging context, this study investigated teacher identity tensions and related coping strategies in Hong Kong. We conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with qualified teachers and then performed a deductive thematic analysis of the data. We categorised the identity tensions as positioned on the micro or macro level, and distinguished the coping strategies as emotion-focused or problem-focused behaviours. The identity tensions and related coping strategies seemed to be associated with teachers’ career stages. We further found identity tensions to be related to the school’s sociocultural environment and to the specific political and societal forces in the region. The study demonstrated the need for continuous and differentiated support catering for teachers’ needs, and highlighted the specific social-political influences on professional identity development.","PeriodicalId":53464,"journal":{"name":"Professions and Professionalism","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42716153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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