Tohtoriksi tulemisen tarina

The study examines the dissertation process. The thesis is based on twenty-three autobiographical stories. They were collected from PhDs who had taken their doctoral degrees at the University of Helsinki. The purpose is to investigate the experiences of these PhD recipients and find out what they recall of the events, traditions, and meanings associated with their PhD studies. An anthology collected from PhDs in the historical sciences, which was published in 1998, was used as reference material. This study begins with a general presentation of the history and values of the university and the traditions of the academic community in Finland. Thereafter, the data and the methodological framework of the study are presented. Attention is paid to the discipline background, sex and age of these PhDs, which may have affected their storytelling. The former studies concerning the academic life together with the experiences of the writers revealed that the process of becoming a PhD graduate is generally considered as an academic rite of passage. The change from student status to becoming a fully accepted professional member of one’s field is real, transforming and at certain points, ritualized. The finding of an inner logic to the doctoral process, which included meaningful turning points, was central to the narrative analysis approach. During the process there were different kinds of struggles and highlights. The family background, university studies and time in employment had directed the doctoral studies of some PhD students enormously. But generally the most memorable and value laden were the phases of actually writing the dissertation, the public examination, and the celebration party in the evening called “karonkka”. The picture that emerged from these various life-stories demonstrated that there was no ivory tower where doctoral candidates live an isolated existence. Everyday cares in ordinary life and tasks in academic life are both demanding and rewarding at the same time. The main point is that the academic community in general and PhD supervisors in particular should concentrate not only on the thesis-writing process their students but also on the doctoral students´ wider life situation. Doctoral students need scientific, financial, and mental support. Somebody must be available to inspire and offer encouragement otherwise the process will be disturbed. The successful completion of the PhD ritual gives the PhD graduate self-confidence and respect but its’ influence on the doctors’ subsequent academic career is diverse. The dissertation process is a personal and unique experience. The aim of the PhD graduation is that this traditional ritual leads to a successful completion and ensures a positive reward for the PhD graduate and the academic community. Keywords: autobiography, narratives, academic traditions, PhD graduates.

Käsityksistä ajatuksen poluille : Ammattikorkeakoulun tutkimus- ja kehitystoiminnan kehittäminen

This study deals with the formation of the idea of research and development (r&d) activity at one particular university of applied sciences in Finland. In this study I proceed from examining the conceptions of management regarding r&d-activities to exploring the development of the complex concept that guides these r&d-activities. The aim of this study is, first, to describe conceptions of r&d-activities, and then, second, to describe the formation of a new concept for r&d-activities in one field of study at the university of applied sciences. I used phenomenographic analysis to elucidate the conceptions and collected the data in interviews of personnel (22) who belong to the management of the university of applied sciences. The data for analysing the obstacles faced and the ways of overcoming them during the formation process of the new concept consist of the video-recorded material from ten change laboratory sessions held for the specific field of study at the university of applied sciences. In researching the formation of the concept of the activity, such research and analysis methods are used in which the concept is understood as a material construction, and with the help of which one can work out the formation of the concept during the development process. When the systematic development of the r&d-work was underway, the management of the university of applied sciences held differing views regarding the content, target, factors and organisation of the r&d-activities, as well as regarding the position of dissertations as a part of r&d-activity. Obstacles for developing rd concerned the unclear object and outcomes of the new activity, not having the tools (such as adequate know-how) for the new activity and not having found the necessary solutions for the distribution of work. In addition the rules that quide the activities of the university of applied sciences did not support working according to the new way. To improve r&d-activity, the school’s management defined three development strategies to encourage adequate rd-activity to support working life, regional development and learning. The strategies were based on the expansion of existing methods, such as service activities, dissertation work and the research activities of the teachers. Of the three possible routes, the concept of dissertation in this study was expanded to integrate the services of organisation development and the occupational growth of the students. A group of teachers in the field of social and health studies participated in the development work. The change laboratory method was used as a tool for this work. Analysis of the cognitive trails indicated that, in addition to the cycle of expansive learning activities, microcycles with different purposes can exist. According to Cussins (1992), something already in existence in each microcycle is destabilised, and something else is stabilised to replace it. In this study three microcycles were identified, during which the teachers first destabilised the existing concepts of dissertation work that guided their thinking, and then began to use new concepts to structure their thinking. Secondly, they undermined the existing concepts with material structure that defined their practical work, and developed new practical models to replace them. Thirdly, the problems accumulating in researching and testing the new activities caused the developers to destabilise the r&d-strategies of the university of applied sciences and to define a new conceptual model for r&d-work in the field. During this third cycle, the teachers developed a research arena model, which was a significant expansive innovation. In the cognitive trails developing the new concept for the r&d-activity, the teachers indeed faced the obstacles the management had described as their conceptions. These obstacles manifested themselves as contradictions. During the development process, the nature of the obstacles (i.e. contradictions) changed as the development proceeded. Solving the first and second degree contradictions highlighted the third and fourth degree contradictions. To overcome the obstacles, the teachers had to to articulate the value and motive of the development work throughout the development process. Developing the new concept for r&d-activity required many reconfigurations of practical solutions to overcome the obstacles. Developing the new concept for r&d-activity, both at the level of representations and of new practices, requires universities of applied sciences to adopt new methods in which the actors are partake in construction of new concepts of activity through adequate discussion, analysis and debate. R&d -activity can progress, if instead of implementing partial solutions, the totality of the activities (i.e. the group of partial solutions acting together) will be constructed. The development of the activity system requires many simultaneous changes as well as wide-ranging know-how and discussion related to these changes. What is perhaps most important, however, is that the group of developers mature into a determined collective actor which can engage in many agentive actions. The development of the agency is fundamental to progress.

The Networks of Learning in Technological Innovation : The Emergence of Collaboration Across Fields of Expertise

This study addresses four issues concerning technological product innovations. First, the nature of the very early phases or "embryonic stages" of technological innovation is addressed. Second, this study analyzes why and by what means people initiate innovation processes outside the technological community and the field of expertise of the established industry. In other words, this study addresses the initiation of innovation that occurs without the expertise of established organizations, such as technology firms, professional societies and research institutes operating in the technological field under consideration. Third, the significance of interorganizational learning processes for technological innovation is dealt with. Fourth, this consideration is supplemented by considering how network collaboration and learning change when formalized product development work and the commercialization of innovation advance. These issues are addressed through the empirical analysis of the following three product innovations: Benecol margarine, the Nordic Mobile Telephone system (NMT) and the ProWellness Diabetes Management System (PDMS). This study utilizes the theoretical insights of cultural-historical activity theory on the development of human activities and learning. Activity-theoretical conceptualizations are used in the critical assessment and advancement of the concept of networks of learning. This concept was originally proposed by the research group of organizational scientist Walter Powell. A network of learning refers to the interorganizational collaboration that pools resources, ideas and know-how without market-based or hierarchical relations. The concept of an activity system is used in defining the nodes of the networks of learning. Network collaboration and learning are analyzed with regard to the shared object of development work. According to this study, enduring dilemmas and tensions in activity explain the participants' motives for carrying out actions that lead to novel product concepts in the early phases of technological innovation. These actions comprise the initiation of development work outside the relevant fields of expertise and collaboration and learning across fields of expertise in the absence of market-based or hierarchical relations. These networks of learning are fragile and impermanent. This study suggests that the significance of networks of learning across fields of expertise becomes more and more crucial for innovation activities.

Parasta ennen : Tasa-arvotyön projektitapaistuminen

This book is a study of equality work, that is, the activities which have involved the promotion of gender equality in Finland. The study focuses on the period when the public sector has become more market-oriented, and business-oriented thinking has penetrated activities that have not traditionally emphasised profit-making. I have asked about the kind of power relations that have led to equality work in Finland. In addition to marketisation, publicly funded projects, especially by the European Union, have permeated the public sector. I have analysed the effects this turn has had on the aims and activities of equality work. Despite marketisation, equality work has remained for decades, and problems related to equality have also been recognised. The question of agency is a central focus of this study. I have analysed the kind of agency that has been offered and possible in equality work. With my previous “equality project career”, I have also participated in the formation of my research subject. This study also represents a description of a researcher taking on the responsibility for being involved in the formation of her own research subject. The study data includes national and EU-level political and governmental documents as well as articles and other publications related to equality issues. The data also includes documents from 99 publicly funded equality projects. Notable research data have been drawn from research interviews with 30 people who have been engaged in equality work in different parts of Finland and who have also worked in publicly funded equality projects. As a research method, I have combined Foucault’s discourse analysis and genealogical analysis as well as deconstructive reading. Political and governmental programmes have called for equality work, such as teaching, training, research and other political influencing in order to promote the political interests of the welfare state. Alliance with the state offers the opportunity to accomplish professionalism and continuity. Although equality work has not achieved similar legitimisation compared to other public sector professions. Equality work has fulfilled the interests of welfare state despite current trends towards marketisation. Publicly and budgetary funded equality work has evolved into business-oriented projects in a situation where the project itself has become a new governing mechanism for society. To analyse this trend, I have developed the concept of projectisation. The concept refers to a form of power that has directed discussions of equality in order to be heard. On the other hand, projectisation has contributed to the visibility of problems related to equality while maintaining heteronormativity and hierarchical order of societal differences, especially of gender, as well as harnessing equality for market use, thereby becoming somewhat useful and productive. Equality has been labelled as women’s work and being something that women do and continuity of the equality work has required a complex form of competence. The persistence of problems concerning equality as well as co-operation between women and the “discourse virtuosity ” of equality work has also opened up opportunities for situational change. Key words: Equality work, project, projectisation, genealogical method, discourse analysis, deconstructive reading, heteronormativity, agency, discourse virtuosity.

Asiakkaan ja asiantuntijan pedagoginen suhde : Fenomenologinen tutkimus fysioterapiatilanteista asiakkaiden ja fysioterapeuttien kokemana

Väitöskirja on fenomenologinen tutkimus koetusta asiakas-asiantuntijasuhteesta. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää ihmisten välisiä asiakas-asiantuntijatilanteiden suhteita ja siten mahdollistaa asiakkaan hyvinvointia. Tutkimuskohteena on fysioterapiasuhde, jota aiemmin on selvitetty fysioterapeutin parantamisena, asiakkaan terveyden edistämisenä tai vuorovaikutussuhteena. Tässä tutkimuksessa mielenkiinto kohdistuu fysioterapiatilanteissa koettuihin asiakkaiden ja asiantuntijoiden välisiin suhteisiin. Tutkimukseen osallistuivat 16 fysioterapiatilanteen kokenutta asiakasta ja 16 saman tilanteen kokenutta fysioterapeuttia, jotka toimivat tutkimusajankohtana erikoissairaanhoidossa, kunnan terveyskeskuksessa tai yksityisessä fysioterapialaitoksessa. Avoimen yksilöhaastattelun tehtävänä oli kuvata mitä osanottaja koki juuri päättyneessä tilanteessa. Tutkimusaineiston analyysi etenee ensimmäisessä vaiheessa fenomenologisen tutkimuksen mukaan, yksilöllisten ihmisten välisten suhteiden koettujen merkitysten ja merkityskokonaisuuksien analyysiin ja merkitysperspektiivin synteesiin. Tutkimuksen ensimmäisen vaiheen yksilöllisten merkitysperspektiivien perusteella fysioterapiasuhde osoittautui muutossuhteeksi, mikä ei ollut erilainen eri organisaatioissa, vaan siinä ilmeni pedagogisen suhteen oppimisen ja ohjauksen piirteitä. Tutkimuksen toisessa vaiheessa vietiin pedagogisen suhteen mukaisesti yhteen ja vertailtiin yksilöllisten merkitysperspektiivien merkityksiä ja merkityskokonaisuuksia asiakkaiden ja fysioterapian asiantuntijoiden näkökulmina sekä saman tilanteen yhteisenä koettuna näkökulmana. Asiakkaiden näkökulmasta suhteen voimavarana oli hänen kokema kehollinen vieraus, mikä ohjasi asiakas-asiantuntijasuhdetta neljänlaiseen asiakkaan muutossuhteeseen. Fysioterapian asiantuntijoiden näkökulmasta asiaosaamisena oli asiakkaan parantaminen liikkeen tai toiminnan avulla, mikä ohjasi asiakas-asiantuntijasuhdetta asiantuntijan näkökulmasta erilaisiin ohjaussuhteisiin. Samassa tilanteessa asiakkaiden ja asiantuntijan yhteisenä kokemat aukeamat etenivät spontaaneista turvallisuuden ja luottavaisuuden aukeamista aktiivisiin yhteisymmärryksen ja yhteissanoituksen aukeamiin. Pedagoginen suhde avautui merkityskokonaisuuksina joko vain asiakkaalle tai asiantuntijalle tai yhteisenä koettuina pedagogisina aukeamina. Edellä mainituista kolmesta (asiakkaan, asiantuntijan, yhteisenä koettu) näkökulmasta asiakas-asiantuntijasuhde osoittautui tässä tutkimuksessa neljäksi erilaiseksi asiakkaan, asiantuntijan ja yhteytenä koetun näkökulmia yhdistäväksi pedagogiseksi prosessiksi. Tutkimuksen tulosten synteesi osoitti, että pedagogisen prosessin suuntaa muuttavat yhteytenä koettujen aukeamien väliset dialogit, joissa spontaani, yhdessä näkyvä ja yhdessä koettua sanoittava dialogihetket osoittautuivat pedagogista prosessia kääntäviksi mahdollisuuksiksi. Tämän tutkimuksen mukaan vasta aktiivinen yhteistä kieltä tuottava pedagoginen suhde mahdollistaa asiakkaan kokeman kehollisen vierauden ymmärtämisen ja yhteissanoittamisen. Sanoittamalla kokemaansa asiakas voi jakaa kokemaansa toimimattomuutta tutulla kielellä myös muiden kun tilanteessa olleiden kanssa ja siten oppia itsenäisesti ohjaamaan omaa hyvinvointiaan. Tämän tutkimusten tulosten mukaan vain yhdessä (Pentin ja Sarin) tilanteessa pedagoginen prosessi eteni yhteiseksi kieleksi. Tutkimustulokset haastavat kehittämään asiakas-asiantuntijasuhdetta siten, että pedagoginen prosessi voisi toteutua kokonaisuudessaan. Avainsanat: asiakas-asiantuntijasuhde, pedagoginen suhde, fenomenologia, kokemus, merkitysanalyysi, dialogi, fysioterapia

Om naturens förvandlingar : Vetenskap, kunskap och frihet i Rudolf Steiners tidiga tänkande. Idéhistoriska perspektiv på Waldorfpedagogiken

TRANSFORMATIONS OF NATURE Science, Knowledge and Freedom in the Early Thinking of Rudolf Steiner. Perspectives on Waldorf Education in the light of the History of Ideas Waldorf Education is based on the worldview that Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) developed to a wide-ranging anthroposophical movement in the first decades of the 20th century. This thesis takes as its departure the early thinking of Rudolf Steiner that precedes anthroposophy, and its main purpose is to uncover the tradition of ideas represented in Steiner´s early life and which, in different ways, have emerged in the practice of Waldorf Education. Through systematic analysis I attempt to bring to light different aspects of Steiner’s early thinking: his concept of science, his epistemological startingpoints and his philosophy of freedom. By departing from J. W. Goethe’s qualitative concept of science, Steiner strove in his early works to formulate a monistic worldview which appears to be closely related to the Romantic Movement and its philosophy of nature. Characteristic traits of his thinking are, on the one hand, a critique of a one-sided enlightenment and, on the other hand, an aspiration to see the world as a living organic unity. Human beings can, by developing our intuitive faculties, get a deeper understanding of the indissoluble relationship between man and nature. Against this background Steiner´s early thinking can be read as a special kind of romantic development narrative. Steiner’s early thinking also opens the way for romantic perspectives on Waldorf Education. It appears that many central aims and conceptions in Waldorf Education can be illuminated by the epistemological perspective upon which Steiner elaborated early in his life. An organic curriculum, phenomenological didactics and high ideal of freedom can be considered seen as educational applications of conceptions that played an important role in Goethe and his age. Thus, Waldorf Education provides in our contemporary society an exceptional set of educational values: a holistic education with romantic undertones.