Universitetet i Agder: UiA Journal System
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Unleashing Workplace Innovation in Scotland
No full textAmid the turbulent political and economic developments around the British departure from the European Union (Brexit), practical activities around Workplace Innovation have continued. The UK Work Organisation Network established Workplace Innovation Ltd, which is now based in Dublin as Workplace Innovation Europe. This short article describes the promising new programme of work on Workplace Innovation in Scotland, working with the support of the Scottish Government. In the uncertainty of the months and years ahead in the UK, Scotland can offer a lead which can be followed by the other regjons and nations of the United Kingdom
Challenges concerning argumentative writing in a second language context
No full textThe current study is based on parts of the data collected in a quasi-experiment conducted in four English classes of Norwegian upper secondary school students. The purpose of the quasi-experiment was to explore whether a teaching intervention based on systemic functional linguistics and genre-pedagogy would support students in improving their competence in writing argumentative texts in English. The improvement was measured by comparing evaluations of pre-and post-tests. The current study investigates what seemed to be the main challenges for Norwegian students concerning this type of genre in a second language context based on the pre-tests and the evaluations of the pre-tests. The most challenging aspect seems to be how to write thorough argumentation and discussion and to use sources in an independent and correct manner. Other challenging features seem to be how to structure texts and how to adjust the language to appropriate levels of formality and modality. To meet these challenges, this article advocates introducing genre-pedagogy as a teaching approach in ESL-contexts (English as a second language). This would ensure a focus on how to construct arguments through detailed instruction and to adjust the writing to purpose and situation
Democratic Dialogue and Development: An Intellectual Obituary of Björn Gustavsen
No full textBjörn Gustavsen, with an original professional background as a lawyer and judge in his native Norway, had a formative role in organisational development processes in Norway, Sweden, Scandinavia and the European Union over four decades. Following in the tradition of Norwegian working life research by Trist and Thorsrud, he provided the conceptual framework and practical case studies which have driven major national and international programmes. He learned from different experience of organisational change in, for example, the USA and Japan, but he identified a distinctive way forward for the European Union, where he acted as a senior adviser. In contrast to conventional Taylorist top-down management and reliance on expert consultants, his approach was bottom up and concept driven, with a focus on empowering workers. With a commitment to long-term sustainable processes, he emphasised the importance of capacity building and succession planning, highlighting development organisations. His approach to partnership and coalition building enabled collaboration across sectors, in the cause of creating collaborative advantage. He had a distinctive fluent academic writing style, but spent most of his time engaged in the design and practice of development, and editing the work of younger colleagues. He saw the role of academic journals and edited books in the development process, so encouraged new publications, but without seeking to dominate. He took ideas of Action Research and case studies, and applied them to national enterprise development programmes, working with the labour market parties. This resulted in a distinctive research and development culture
Worklife Ergonomics in Digital Co-Creation: The ‘What’, the ‘Why’ and the ‘How’
No full textService improvement (“servitisation”) and digitalisation are two megatrends that affect healthcare and public services along with other sectors in general. A new model is needed to prescribe how governance in an increasingly changing world of modern healthcare could be undertaken in a successful manner by embracing the power of Co-Creation. The concept of good worklife ergonomics is studied, both as a prerequisite, the ‘What’, and as a success factor in this context, the ‘Why’. This article proposes that the moderating, risk mitigating, factor of broadly based employee involvement in all phases from planning and design to implementation will greatly improve quality in both innovation-process, and outcomes. A case-study from a public homecare living lab eHealth-project in Norway is visited to highlight some of the challenges ahead. Having established that employee co-creation can contribute to successful digital transformation of healthcare services, the ‘How’ question is studied. The question of how to enable effective employee co-creation is under-researched. Employee participation in co-creation is stated as an important enabler of digitalisation and service improvements. The Nordic Model for employee participation has proven successful for enhancing working life effectiveness and innovation. This article propose that these principles of employee participation can be further enhanced by using web 2.0 technologies for Enterprise Social Networks. The article concludes with a discussion of consequences for the digital transformation of healthcare services as well as implications for research and practice
Visual Representations of Indigenous Cultures in Norwegian EFL Textbooks
No full textThis article presents a summary of research conducted on the visual representation of indigenous cultures in four English textbooks produced for lower secondary schools with the aim of investigating the extent to which images of indigenous people contribute to, or contradict, the general cultural aims of the English language learning curriculum in Norway. Over 800 textbook images were analyzed using the methods of visual content analysis and semiotic image analysis. A qualitative analysis of two photomontages also provides a more holistic approach to the study and helps to more clearly explain the quantitative results. The results from the research show a strong trend to focus on traditional aspects of indigenous people, a tendency to represent indigenous people in a lower position of power than the viewer, and to distance the viewer. Comparatively, the images of white people more frequently invite the viewer to interact and empathize with the participants. Consequently, the research concludes that the images in the four EFL textbooks analyzed are, to a large degree, potential carries of ideologies in direct contradiction to the general cultural aims of English language learning in Norway. The implications of these findings are that images and how they position readers should be a part of EFL teaching
The Role of Minority Students’ L1 when Learning English
No full textThis paper examines the context of multilingual minority students in Norwegian English classrooms, particularly focusing on the role of their L1. First, do minority students find their L1 useful when learning English? Second, how do minority students make use of their L1 when learning English? And finally, how do their teachers support the use of their L1 in the English classroom? Qualitative interviews with 10 minority students from three different secondary schools in Norway shows that although their teachers often ignore their linguistic background and do not encourage the use of the L1 in the English classroom, many students make use of their L1; they translate between English and their L1, see grammatical similarities between their L1 and English, and receive support from peers and parents through the medium of the L1. However, the lack of encouragement and support has also led many minority students to hold rather negative attitudes towards their L1 and they often consider their L1 as unfit for academic purposes. Hence, they often hesitate to make use of their L1 in the English classroom and there is great variety among the participants on whether they find their L1 useful in the context of the English classroom
Spansk nivå III – nye læringsmuligheter og deltakelse i læringsrom i hverdag og fritid
No full textDenne artikkelen presenterer resultatene fra en breddeundersøkelse fra 2015 og en oppfølgende dybdeundersøkelse fra 2016 blant til sammen 205 elever som har valgt spansk på høyeste nivå i grunnopplæringa. I en tid med økende globalisering og digitalisering møter dagens spanskelever målspråket i mange ulike situasjoner og i ulike læringsrom, noe som åpner for nye erfaringer med språk og språklæring. Vi søker å gi noen svar på hvilke læringsmuligheter elevene benytter seg av utenom skolen og hva slags betydning det spanske språket har i deres livskontekst. Vi fant at elevene i varierende, men utstrakt grad benytter seg av de økte læringsmulighetene, og at spansk oppleves som relevant i hverdag og fritid, men også med tanke på framtidig studie- og arbeidsliv. Gjennom en presentasjon av resultatene konkretiserer vi de forskjellige læringsrommene og tilstedeværelsen av spansk i elevenes liv, og kommer nærmere inn på deres egen vurdering av nytteverdien av de økte læringsmulighetene. Resultatene viser blant annet at de er bevisste og deltakende aktører i ulike typer læringsrom. Vi mener at en større bevissthet og kunnskap om de ulike læringsrommene elevene deltar i vil kunne gi et mer helhetlig perspektiv på språklæringsprosessen deres og dermed være med på gjøre spanskfaget ytterligere relevant