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Amy L. Fletcher Political Science Programme University of Canterbury NEW ZEALAND

Amy L. Fletcher Political Science Programme University of Canterbury NEW ZEALAND Amy.fletcher@canterbury.ac.nz. 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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Amy L. Fletcher Political Science Programme University of Canterbury NEW ZEALAND

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  1. Amy L. Fletcher Political Science Programme University of Canterbury NEW ZEALAND Amy.fletcher@canterbury.ac.nz

  2. Session Agenda • Context of New Zealand Tertiary Sector • Organization of T4T4T Pilot Project • Framework: Information Ecology • Outcomes and Challenges • Preliminary Conclusions

  3. 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

  4. 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

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

  6. T4T4T – Pilot Project • Collaborative online community • Professional development • Improve teaching – all approaches and disciplines • E-learning (secondary) • Strengthen Canterbury Tertiary Alliance

  7. Canterbury Tertiary Alliance (CTA) • University of Canterbury • Christchurch Polytechnic • Lincoln University • Christchurch College of Education

  8. Amy: Amy: Amy: Research Team • 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

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

  10. Information Ecology • A system of people, practices, values and technologies in a particular local environment. • Nardi and O’Day (1999)

  11. 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

  12. Research Questions • How—or will—T4T4T affect Canterbury’s existing information ecology? • Will there be sources of resistance? If so, what motivates this resistance?

  13. Canterbury’s Information Ecology • Faculty = primary emphasis on one’s disciplinary identity • Reputation defined nationally or internationally – not locally! • Promotion and respect via publication • Executive = Focus on PBRF in pilot timeframe

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. 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”

  17. 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)

  18. 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?

  19. 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?

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