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Practical nursing students’ competence assessment in the workplace: A qualitative study
No full textThe aim of the present study was to describe practical nursing students’, mentors’, and educators’ experiences and perceptions of student competence assessment in the workplace. The research data were collected using a qualitative research design which included interviews with eight practical nursing students, 12 mentors, and eight educators from three vocational institutions and four social- and health care organisations in Finland during November 2019–September 2020. The data comprised six focus group and five pair interviews. The collected data were subjected to content analysis. A successful assessment of competence in the workplace is based on easy-to-use and understandable assessment criteria. The competence demonstration should be student-centered and executed in the workplace in accordance with assessment criteria. An individual competence assessment discussion takes place in a peaceful space with sufficient time allotted for the process. The student has the opportunity for self-assessment, but the assessor and educator decide the grade. The successful assessment and demonstration of vocational competence positively affects a student’s vocational development.
Academic drift and metabolic alienation in vocational education
No full textThe article aims to initiate rereading the history of vocational education from the perspective of its contribution to the emergence of the planetary crisis. I hypothesise that this connection relates to the academisation of vocational education and the concurrent changes in the concepts of occupation, vocational education, and academic education. Drawing on studies in the history of vocational education and a few historical documents, I demonstrate my attempt by tracing shifts in the governance of vocational education in Finland from the early 19th century to recent years. In this article, my focus is on the sectoral aspect of this process. I argue it proceeded from the sectoral promotion of industries during primitive capital accumulation towards a comprehensive education cluster in fossil fuel-supported welfare capitalism. According to my preliminary interpretation, academisation connects during these periods with the increasing alienation of social metabolism from biophysical metabolism. Tackling alienation would require revisiting how it has been promoted through (vocational) education in industrial sectors and their global metabolic chains
Migrant labour in the automotive industry: A literature review
No full textThe automotive industry has a significant role not only in global and national economies but also in the formation of a nation’s labour force, by (re)training workers. While historically the automobile industry has attracted mostly low-skilled migrants for the assembly lines, in the present times, an additional need for highly skilled and often STEM-educated migrant workers has been noted. By performing a systematic literature review, the present study explored the relationships between migrant labour and the car industry sector outlined in the research literature. The study followed a thematic analysis and reached findings that were summarised in four themes. Firstly, two profiles of migrant workers were identified, corresponding to what is often discussed as low- and highly skilled workers. Secondly, the working conditions for the migrant labour force were prominent in the literature, while they varied based on the profile of the migrant worker. Thirdly, from a historical perspective, strikes were shown to affect migrants’ working conditions and rights, while fourthly, the business practice of offshoring was shown to influence migrant workforce conditions and status. In conclusion, the complexity of the issue under research, the scarcity of the relevant literature, and the contextuality of the cases presented have acted as limitations of this literature review. Further research on the topic is needed since the car industry is a core player in national economies, and, hence, its influence on migration practices and policies should not be underestimated
Gör din plikt och kräv din rätt : – en relationell etnografi av arbetslinjens hegemoni på medborgarkontor i den urbana periferin
No full textNavigating Duty and Rights - A Relational Ethnography of Work-First Hegemony in Municipal Service Centres in the Urban PeripheryThe "work-first approach" (arbetslinjen) is a fundamental concept in Swedish welfare policy, shaping both progressive and regressive policy agendas. In contemporary political discourse, marginalised communities have become the focus of initiatives aimed at reinforcing the work-first approach among the unemployed through increased conditionalities. Consequently, the work-first approach has become a site of struggle over the direction of Swedish labour market and welfare policies. This article aims to analyse how the work-first approach is realised as a hegemonic practice within municipal service centres located in marginalised communities. Based on a relational ethnographic approach, we examine how the work-first approach is realised in daily interactions between residents and community guides, as people navigate administrative activation measures, experience hyper-exploitation, and manage life on the margins of poverty. Our findings highlight the fluid nature of the work-first approach, demonstrating how it is both reproduced and contested across different social contexts. We argue that the work-first approach, as a hegemonic idea, faces a significant challenge: increasing social conflict and coercion within the welfare system and labour market are undermining the active consent of marginalised groups—a consent critical for maintaining the work-first approach as a dominant framework in Swedish policy
Heritage, Heirs and Performative Competence
No full textCultural heritage is traces from the past that are ascribed meaning in the present. This basic tenet of current heritage theory is often followed by a call for more democratic heritage processes and the inclusion of more diverse values. The article points to the ensuing paradox: what is left to define heritage when it is neither inherent qualities, nor a set of general values? To explore some issues raised by this paradox, the article focusses on the relation between heritage and its owners or heirs, seeing them both as actants, mutually constituted (Greimas). Consequently, heritage cannot exist without heirs.
The article argues that to be socially acknowledged, the role as heir must be claimed in specific ways. The heirs must be able to demonstrate a specific performative competence, i.e. master the metacultural level the defines heritage. These discourse and practices will be closely related to the dominant values already defining the heritage field, often representative of the hegemonic classes and leading cultural groups. The article investigates three cases in which the values and ideas of the "heirs presumptive" were at odds with the authorised heritage discourse, based on the habitus and values of other social groups
Between school and work: Vocational students’ experiences of using digital multimodal logbooks as boundary objects
No full textThe aim of this study is to illuminate the way learning across workplace and school is shaped, by focusing on students’ experiences of their teachers’ efforts to work with subject-specific vocational knowledge at school. The study builds on theories of boundary crossing, and in this specific example, the students use a digital multimodal logbook as a boundary object connecting the two learning arenas school and workplace. Four teachers from an upper-secondary vocational programme and their 14 students were interviewed and a multilevel boundary crossing framework was used for the analyses. The results show that, compared to their teachers, the students understood the purpose of the digital logbook differently and did not see its connection to learning outcomes. When confronted with this purpose at the end of the interviews, the students presented their own ideas on developing the logbook. Most disagreements occurred at an interpersonal level, that is, teachers and students did not engage in enough discussion to understand each other’s views. A conclusion drawn from this result is that a more fundamental discussion is needed between teachers and students on the purpose and use of logbooks in order to exploit their full potential
Reconciliation Across Religious/Political Borders: Westphalian Norms and the Legacy of the Bosnian War
No full textThe question of reconciliation within the legacy of the 1992-1995 conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina presents religious ethicists with a challenge. A promising resource for this challenge lies in the relationship between religious and political borders, which complements the formal, juridical character of transitional justice. The religious/political borders relationship does not apply to all reconciliation-related cases, yet it does bear on cases in which religious/political identities overlap and questions of sovereign territoriality are at issue. The Bosnian conflict not only fulfills these criteria; its legacy reveals it as a harbinger of contemporary changes in norms associated with sovereignty. Because of their background in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, these changes can be labeled ”toxic Westphalianism,” in which adherence to Westphalian norms remains, even as its anchoring distinctions have become unmoored. These claims suggest two further contributions to the ethical engagement with reconciliation. First, the historical approach demonstrates the value of tracing reconciliation to its roots. Second, self-conscious attention to religious-political relations carves out a distinct and important role for religious ethics, which is uniquely placed to navigate between internal and external borders of a religious tradition and promote better forms of public and interfaith engagement
Book Review: Wilk, Thomas and Gimbel, Steven: In on the Joke: The Ethics of Humor and Comedy. De Gruyter, 2024, 144 pp.
No full textNo abstract.
Images of formal home care in Finnish newspapers – a social representations approach
No full textMedia representations play an essential role in how older adults are perceived in society. The aim of the study is to examine what kind of understanding newspaper images construct of home care and older adults as care recipients by utilizing social representations theory.
The data consist of 95 images published in Finnish newspapers in 2022 and 2023. The images were analysed using visual rhetorical analysis. The media images constructed four social representations of formal home care: (1) vulnerable older adults as objects of care, (2) efficient care workers in a hurry, (3) lonely older adults at home, and (4) vital and content older adults. The images represented care workers as active agents, while the older adults were mainly presented as passive and lonely objects of care.
The study shows that the images used in newspapers as depictions of home care reinforce the prevailing perceptions of older adults as a burden
Welcome to Class
No full textThis essay draws on recent work on artificial intelligence (AI) in education. Using education fiction as a mode for discussion, the essay explores a future shaped by datafication, rationalization, effectivization and management-by-data. It begins by looking at the social dynamics of AI and its implementation in educational settings. Additionally, the essay introduces two education fiction narratives inspired by common sociotechnical imaginaries on AI in education, as well as the authors’ previous engagement with interviewing teachers on the subject. These narratives highlight the role of AI designers and the EdTech Industry, revealing how the machinations of data sciences are influencing the educational landscape. Lastly, we emphasize the importance of involving teachers in defining what technology should, and should not, be in the educational infrastructure of the future