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

Thank you!

sally.sambrook@bangor.ac.uk