Amy L. Fletcher

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Amy L. Fletcher Political Science
Programme University of Canterbury NEW
ZEALAND Amy.fletcher_at_canterbury.ac.nz
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Session Agenda

• Context of New Zealand Tertiary Sector
• Organization of T4T4T Pilot Project
• Framework Information Ecology
• Outcomes and Challenges
• Preliminary Conclusions

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I Will Leave Here Today With . . .

• Demonstration of online professional development
  in a different (NZ) context
• Information Ecology
• Practical use of the concept for professional
  development initiatives
• Outcomes, Challenges, Conclusions

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Higher Education Policy Context New Zealand

• 1984 neoliberal revolution
• Fees
• Expanded participation
• Knowledge Society
• Critic and conscience of society
• Changes accelerate with national government in
  the 1990s

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Tertiary Sector Today

• Performance-based research funding (PBRF)
• Tertiary Education Commission (TEC)
• Accountability, transparency, outcomes

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T4T4T Pilot Project

• Collaborative online community
• Professional development
• Improve teaching all approaches and disciplines
• E-learning (secondary)
• Strengthen Canterbury Tertiary Alliance

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Canterbury Tertiary Alliance (CTA)

• University of Canterbury
• Christchurch Polytechnic
• Lincoln University
• Christchurch College of Education

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Research Team
Amy
Amy
Amy

• Coordinator/External Researcher
• UltraLab, Ltd
• Mentors/Researchers
• Assist in recruitment of colleagues
• Regular workshops and meetings
• Participate in community activities
• Off-line mentoring where appropriate

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Participants
Amy

• Participants
• 1 hour per week
• Establish a professional development goal
• Participate in and across online forums

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Information Ecology

• A system of people, practices, values and
  technologies in a particular local environment.
• Nardi and ODay (1999)

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Information Ecology and T4T4T

• Assumption 1 interaction of people technology
  in an organization shapes adaptation and
  acceptance
• Productive, Dysfunctional, Neutral
• A2 Canterbury very different from the other CTA
  members

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Research Questions

• Howor willT4T4T affect Canterburys existing
  information ecology?
• Will there be sources of resistance? If so, what
  motivates this resistance?

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Canterburys Information Ecology

• Faculty primary emphasis on ones disciplinary
  identity
• Reputation defined nationally or internationally
  not locally!
• Promotion and respect via publication
• Executive Focus on PBRF in pilot timeframe

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Outcomes

• Limited participation that declined markedly over
  course of pilot community not self-sustaining
• Tension theoretical and applied participants
• Lack of Canterbury fit
• Very little buy-in from full-time professional
  staff outside of Education

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Challenges

• Time constraints?
• Tension between Canterbury mentors and rest of
  pilot research team (Action Research what is
  it?)
• How can key variable professional development
  be measured?
• PBRF

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Subtle Forms of Resistance

• Participant lack of initiative
• Different views of the word mentor
• Alleged reputation of ERAU
• Instrumental and time-limited goals
• Professional jealousy? (I.E., why do you get to
  be a mentor?)
• Reluctance to appear vulnerable or less than
  competent

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Preliminary Conclusions

• Organizational culture is the emergent result of
  the continuing negotiations about values,
  meanings, and proprieties between members of that
  organization and with its environment. If you
  want to change a culture, you have to change all
  these conversations.
• R. Seel (2000)

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Preliminary Conclusions

• More empirical research needed before roll-out on
  a national level
• Need for executive level buy-in and incentives to
  participate
• Different faculty career paths within higher
  education?

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Preliminary Conclusions

• Exploration of political implications and values
  underlying online professional development.
• One-size fits all does not work.
• More depth within disciplines. Organized along a
  departmental basis?