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Sally Sambrook
Learning, research and impact in HRD: rigour and relevance for whom?
An autoethnographic perspective
Introduction
• Aim = connect key workshop themes• Learning• Research
• Explore issues of rigour, relevance & impact
• From multiple perspectives
• Through an autoethnographic approach
Autoethnography
• First labelled by Hayano (1979)
• ‘An autobiographic genre of writing and research that displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural’ (Ellis & Bochner 2003:209).
• AE is a way of writing (graphy) about personal experiences (auto) that connect with a particular culture (ethno) (Reed-Danahay 1997)
• The researcher is part of the study, linking personal experiences of the intellectual idea with the culture being studied
Issues in AE
• Ethical considerations• The self, I, (Doloriert & Sambrook 2009) • Relational (Vickers 2002, Medford 2006 etc)
• Exposure & vulnerability• Enables voice, but partially naked (Clandinin &
Connelly 1994)• Once told, story is loose in the world (King 2003)
• Extensive critique• Self-indulgence, narcissim (Coffey 1999)• Academic wank (Sparkes 2002)
Four possible perspectives
IMPACT
Learning & research & me
Connecting learning & research
Research
Pedagogy Practice
Connecting rigour & relevance
• Some challenging questions …
• What do they mean?• How can we achieve them?• Why are they important?• And for whom?
• Competing or complementary?
Relevance & rigour
Relevant to whom?
• The researcher/degree student her/himself
• The student’s supervisor • The school/institution where
the researcher works• The research community• The funding body• The government• Society at large
Rigour - more straightforward?
• A piece of research is said to be rigorous if it closely follows the well established rules of research – rules established within the chosen research paradigm and the chosen research community
Knowledge creation
• Mode I• Fundamental research, questions set and solved by
academics with little, if any, focus on exploitation of research by practitioners (rigour)
• Mode II• Applied research, governed by world of practice and
highlighting collaboration with & between practitioners (relevance) (Gibbons et al 1994)
• Mode III• Research growing out of I & II with the purpose ‘to
assure survival and promote the common good at various levels of social aggregation’ (Huff & Huff 2001:553)
(Saunders et al 2009:595)
Relevance & rigour (Anderson et al 2001)
Knowledge dissemination/ acquisition?
• Mode I• Fundamental teaching, content set and delivered by
academics with little, if any, focus on exploitation of needs of & contributions by practitioners (rigour)
• Mode II• Applied teaching & learning, governed by world of
practice and highlighting collaboration with & between practitioners (relevance)
• Mode III• Pedagogy growing out of I & II with the purpose ‘to
assure survival and promote the common good at various levels of social aggregation’
Defining impact …
• The benefits that can flow from excellent research are many and varied. For the purposes of the REF, impact is defined as:
• “any effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia.”
(REF Brief guide for research users: 3)
IMPACT (1)
I Important
M Measurable
P Performance
A Action
C Critical
T Teaching & learning
IMPORTANT
• Imp + act
• Important
• Action
• How achieve in research and learning?
• Compatible or competing?
Measurable
How demonstrate?
What is IMPACT By whom?Measured?
Why?
Performance
• Changing HE context• Increasing bureaucratization• New managerialism• Performativity• Publish or perish• Prioritization of research over teaching, yet ..
• Teaching performance, NSS• Higher fees = higher expectations
Performance
Action
• Students• Use of webnotes BMAF (Sambrook & Rowley 2010)• Doctoral supervision UFHRD (Sambrook & Stewart
2008, Doloriert & Sambrook 2009, 2011, 2012, Sambrook et al 2008, 2012)
• Group work HEA Wales (Sambrook et 2011)• Faculty
TLA HRD UFHRD, BMAF (Sambrook & Stewart 2009)• Organisations (HE, business)
• LEAD Wales WEFO (Jones & Sambrook 2012)• Relevance to SME owner-managers, social and
economic impact
Critical
• Critical – REF publish or perish, NSS
• Critical approaches to learning & research• Professional/disciplinary: free HRD from HRM
• Paradigmatic/methodological: beyond positivism – implications for rigour & relevance
• Pedagogic: micro emancipatory projects (indiv & groups, CALS, shifting from dependence to interdependence UG - Doctoral)
• Practice: more human, ethical organisations
Teaching & learning
• Implications for key themes:
• employability
• internationalisation
• flexible learning
• post-graduate pedagogy (student & supervisor)
• work-based learning
IMPACT (2)
I Important
M Meaningful
P People
A research-informed Action (& AL, AR)
C Critical (rigorous & relevant)
T Teaching & learning
Competing perspectives?
Personal
Pedagogic IMPACT Professional
Performative
Conclusion
• AE, personal and partial account of my experiences of teaching, learning & research
• My attempt to make connections/make sense
• imPACT • We need a PACT
• Between teaching & research
• Between rigour & relevance
