Activity Theory as a Research Tool in Two Studies of Interprofessional Practice Anne Edwards

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Activity Theory as a Research Tool in Two Studies
of Inter-professional Practice
Anne Edwards
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The National Evaluation of the Childrens Fund
(NECF)

• January 2003-March 2006 (DfES)
• Strand A - IOE, MCS
• Strand B - Birmingham
• Partnership Case Studies (structures and
  processes leading to good outcomes CHAT)
  
  Thematic Case Studies (ToC)

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The Partnership Case Studies

• Sixteen longitudinal case studies of Partnerships
• Structures and process for good outcomes
• Seven months in each site
• Visits of one week every four weeks
• Structured feedback sessions every month
• Working through layers from strategy, to
  providers, to users, to providers to strategy
• Case studies defined by activity theory

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Learning in and for Interagency Working (LIW)

• January 2004-December 2007 (TLRP)
• Five Phases
• Phase 3 a feasibility study, Phase 4 the main
  study starting Autumn 2005
• Using CHAT to examine how professionals learn to
  collaborate to prevent the social exclusion of
  young people

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Focuses on learning in the 2 projects

• NECF major focus on extent to which the CF was a
  catalyst for the development of preventative
  services i.e .learning at the level of the system
• LIW major focus on how and what practitioners
  are learning when the undertake multi-agency
  collaborations i.e. individual learning in and
  across systems
• But neither focus excludes the other

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CHAT Vygotsky

• tool mediated action (reveals consciousness)
• move between everyday and scientific concepts
• individual development from the outside in i.e.
  incorporation of culture
• the social situation of development i.e. the
  leading activity

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Activity Theory Leontev

• A shift of focus from tool to object i.e. that
  which is to be worked on
• The ideas of object motive and leading activity
• The cultural construction of the object
• The activity system e.g. the hunt

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Activity Theory Leontev and object motive

• The main thing which distinguishes one activity
  from another, however, is the difference of their
  objects. It is exactly the object of an activity
  that gives it a determined direction. According
  to the terminology I have proposed, the object of
  the activity is its true motive.
  
  (Leontev, 1978, p. 62)

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Activity Theory Engestrom

• Developmental Work Research (DWR) an
  interventionist change methodology (from
  everyday to scientific)
• Learning at the level of the system expansive
  learning
• Expanding the object of activity
• Questioning rules, division of labour etc.
• Revealing contradictions which drive the learning

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An Activity System
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An Activity System as ZPD

• Multi-voiced systems? (e.g. a YOT)
• Tightly regulated?
• Power of the ready meanings
• Learning shaped by nature of the leading activity
  
• Able to deal with uncertainty and change i.e.
  renegotiate objects?
• Contradictions

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CHAT and learning something new

• Examining the incorporation of the culture into
  the individual psyche (Vygotsky and Leontev)
• Describing how we use the cultural tools of
  society to work on our worlds and transform them
  (All)
• Enabling the transformation of the object of our
  activity (Engestrom)

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Useful Concept 1 object-oriented activity

• What is the object that is being worked on?
• Who is working on the object? How do they align
  their work?
• As we work on objects they race ahead of us
  opening up new possibilities
• Example Practices which enable the participation
  of children and young people in the design and
  delivery of services. They move from consultation
  to evaluation to real involvement in service
  design and commissioning

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A moving open-ended object in an innovative CF
partnership

• We do not want our strategy to be focused
  exclusively on stopping or containing harm, risk
  or other negative outcomes
• There isnt an endpoint in terms of the work or
  the activity (of the CF). It will simply flow
  into something else.

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Useful Concept 2 pathways of participation in
and between systems

• Practices seen as socially supported pathways of
  participation within activity systems (such as
  schools or children and family services)
• New multi-agency practices occur outside home
  organisations
• CF outside the mainstream (a boundary zone
  between systems)
• LIW occurring at a time when new rules and tools
  e.g. CAF are being brought into systems (how are
  these new tools being used for MA work? Are
  systems responding and enabling new practices or
  incorporating new tools into existing practices?)

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Useful concept 3 boundary zones between systems

• Multi-voiced, no-persons land, beyond the
  situated practices of organisations, yet able to
  reflect their norms, free of ritual
• NECF BZ- informal sites where collaborations
  start, where we can follow the cognitive trails
  hacked by practitioners across professional
  boundaries as they develop new MA practices
• NECF and LIW also setting up BZ as part of the
  research process

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Boundary zones between systems (contd)

• Developmental Work Research (DWR) (Engestrom)
• Moving people from everyday to scientific
  concepts
• It really isnt a lot, it is only a matter of
  adjusting what you do in response to other
  peoples requests and needs

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CHAT as a research tool? (1)

• Strong on description and insight e.g. What is
  the object? How are rules shaping the use of the
  tools?
• Moving from description to explanation? NECF has
  categorised partnerships as learning zones and
  now predicting impact of learning on outcomes for
  children - but a still-maturing theory

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CHAT as a research tool? (2)

• Learning something new? The open-ended
  transformed object is a useful concept.
  Resistances in system revealed in use of rules,
  tools, division of labour
• Individual learning? Object-oriented activity
  fixes gaze on actors. Boundary zones and
  cognitive trails where new subjectivities can
  emerge usefully augment CHAT.
• Interventionist? Can link DWR work on everyday
  and scientific concepts work in boundary zones
  with ways of conceptualising new practices (DWR
  in BZ is new)