FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

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1 What does "technology" mean in educational research on workplace? Tine Wedege 2013 Adults /Vuxnas matematik: Working papers, 3 FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

2 What does "technology" mean in educational research on workplace? Adults /Vuxnas lärande: Working papers, 3 This paper is written as a part of the research project Adults : From work to school funded by the Swedish Research Council and Malmö University. Tine Wedege, Faculty of Education and Society Publisher Faculty of Education and Society Malmö University Malmö Editorial secretaries: Catarina Christiansson, [email protected] Marie Jacobson, [email protected]

3 What does technology mean in educational research on workplace? Tine Wedege, Faculty of Education and Society, Malmö University, Sweden Abstract. Technology is a key term in the educational research field of in the workplace. However, the notion of technology is constructed differently in the workplace studies according to the researchers purpose and theoretical frameworks of reference. The objective of this paper is to analyse discourses on and technology in selected literature from Austria, France, Sweden, and UK. The analytical frame is a broad, albeit specific, understanding of workplace technology with four dynamically inter-related dimensions: (a) technique and machinery, (b) work organisation, and (c) vocational qualifications, and (d) workers competences. Researchers agree that in the workplace is integrated in technology. However, in the four dimensions, is integrated (1) explicity as academic, school and vocational, or (2) implicitly as vocational and ethno. The analysis, with respect to this framework, shows that the construction of containing technology also varies with the values and rationales of the stakeholders (e.g. politicians, trade organisations or researchers in different cultural and societal contexts). Key words. Discourse, Workplace, Mathematics containing technology, Theory, Vocational qualification, Workers competences. Technological and economic development of society is one of the reasons given for education (Niss, 1996). Thus, it is important to have a critical look at the interfaces between education and technology. However, in education, as in everyday language, the term technology is mostly associated with information and communication technology (ICT), and research is mainly directed towards ICT in the classroom (Artique, 2006). In this paper, the main focus is explicit and implicit in the workplace not school. Thus, the understanding of technology has to be broader. The aim is to analyse discourses on technology and within the educational research field of workplace. Here, the term discourse is used in the general meaning of written or spoken communication within specific historical, cultural or societal contexts. By theoretical frameworks of reference (Artique, 2006), I mean the theory, conceptual framework etc., used and referred to by the researchers. Within the focussed research field, there is as mentioned above a common understanding that workplace is integrated with technology (technique, work organisation, qualifications and competences). However, modern computer techniques hide the use of in the software, and as a visible tool disappears in many workplace routines (Strässer, 2003). But apart from this objective invisibility there also exists a subjective invisibility. People do not recognise the in their daily practice. They just do not connect the everyday activity with that most of them associate to the school subject or the discipline (Wedege & Evans, 2006). 1

4 The main interest, behind the analysis presented in this paper, is in the workplace (see below). I include four types of which is developed, practiced and learned in different educational and vocational practices: academic in universities school in general and vocational schools, vocational in vocational schools, and in workplaces and labor market organizations, ethno in communities of work (wage work, domestic work etc.). For the analysis, I have selected literature from Austria (Jungwirt, Maasz, & Schlöglmann, 1995), France (Bessot, 2000), Sweden (Gustafsson & Mouwitz, 2010), and UK (Hoyles et al., 2010, Noss et al., 2007). Criteria for selection of literature have been diversity in focus and understanding of and in language (mother tongue of the researchers), but also national and/or international importance of the authors within the field of workplace. Mathematics containing technologyi In order to investigate the relationship between education and technology in the workplace, it is necessary to have a broad conception of mathematical knowledge and of technology as well. Technology is a central theme in Gail FitzSimons (2002) study on adult and vocational education where it provides a nexus between mathematical and industrial practice, as well as their related educational subfields (p. 8). She calls attention to the histories of development of technology and. They indicate that they operate in a dialogical relationship which is often invisible for the members of the communities, even those with a substantial background in. In the Discussion Document for the ICMI/ICIAM study on Educational Interfaces between Mathematics and Industry (EIMI), it is stated that Technology is understood in the broadest sense, including traditional machinery, modern information technology, and workplace organisation (ICMI/ICIAM, 2009, p. 100). The frame for my analysis is an even broader and, at the same time, dynamic understanding of workplace technology where is integrated in four dynamically inter-related dimensions: (a) technique/machinery, (b) work organisation, and (c) vocational qualifications, and (d) workers competences (Wedege, 2000). The term technique is used in a broad sense to include not only tools, machines and technical equipment, but also cultural techniques (e.g., communication & time management), and techniques for deliberate structuring of the working process (e.g., Taylor s scientific management, the ISO 9000 quality management system). Mathematics is applied and embedded in technique as well as in machinery. Work organization is used to designate the way in which tasks, functions, responsibility, and competence are structured in the workplace in order to achieve a specific goal. Mathematics is applied and embedded in work organization. Vocational qualifications are the knowledge, skills, and personal qualities required to handle technique and work organization in a work function; for example, formal mathematical ideas and techniques. Mathematics is integrated in vocational qualifications as respectively academic, school and vocational. Human competences are workers capacities (cognitive, affective, & social) for acting effectively, critically and constructively in the workplace. Mathematics is incorporated and embodied in human competences as respectively vocational and ethno. In table 1, 2

5 notions of explicit and of implicit in workplace technology are developed. Explicit is applied in techniques (e.g. folding rule and mechanical weighing and pricing) and in work organization (e.g. scientific management and Just in Time); integrated in workers vocational qualifications as functional mathematical skills and knowledge (e.g. numeracy and techno-mathematical literacy) and incorporated in workers competences (e.g. containing technological competence and techno-mathematical literacy). Implicit is embedded in technique (e.g. hammer and digital weighing and pricing), work organization (e.g. shifting cultivation) and embodied in workers competences (e.g. personal time managing and pattern weaving). Per definition there is no implicit in vocational qualifications, which are explicitly communicated in curricula, course plans etc. Table 1. Mathematics in workplace technology (a) Technique/ machinery (b) Work organization (c) Vocational qualifications (1) Explicit use and integration of mathematical tools Applied (academic and school ) Applied (academic and school ) Functional mathematical skills and knowledge (academic, school and vocational ) (2) Implicit integration of mathematical tools or developed in practice Embedded (vocational / ethno) Embedded (vocational / ethno) Technology (d) Workers competences Mathematics ---- Incorporated (vocational ) Embodied (ethno) This understanding of containing technology presupposes that new information and communication techniques [ICT] or any techniques do not bring about change or development by itself. Competent workers are needed who are qualified to handle the particular ICT as well as appropriate work organization (Wedege, 2004). Strässer (2003) has used the development from mechanical to digital weighing and pricing as an example of disappearance of from societal perception (p. 30). Keitel, Kotzmann and Skovsmose (1993) (Keitel, Kotzmann, & Skovmose, 1993) point out two contrary processes: The most important concepts of implicit ( ) are time, space, and money. We areacting in a highly mathematical space-time-money system without knowing (or even 3

6 having to know) the underlying mathematical abstraction processes explicitly. This results in the paradox that a demathematisation process takes place parallel to the mathematisation of our world. ( ) More and more (learnt in school) only exists implicitly, i.e. one needs only a certain operative ability (e.g. using a pocket calculator or a computer doing the calculations by programs) and a certain attitude and belief (e.g. the conviction that decisions based on mathematical methods are more reliable than by other arguments).(p.251) Mathematics is always integrated in workplace technology, i.e. applied, incorporated or embedded. In practice at work one does not solve mathematical problems like in the school. One solves practical problems like washing a car, controlling the quality, cutting the hair, dosing the medicine etc. In the classroom (Gellert, 2008) or in surveys like PISA (OECD, 2003), the students often have to forget what they might know about the context and only use logic and school mathematical knowledge to produce the correct answer (Wedege, 2010).The so-called invisibility of in technology or that generally is hidden in todays technology is agreed among researcher (ICMI/ICIAM, 2009). Embodied (table 2, 2d) is implicit in human competences at work. I have chosen the term embodied with inspiration from (Leplat, 1995), according to who embodied competences are competences encapsulated into the action, difficult to verbalize, very connected to the context but easily available and unproblematic. The worker s feeling for time and space is an example of embodied. Studies of in and for the workplace In educational research on workplace, it is possible to distinguish two kinds of interest: Mathematics for the workplace. The interest guiding the studies is education for in the workplace. The research questions concern vocational qualifications in and how they can be developed through formal education (e.g. Bessot, 2000, Hoyles, Noss, Kent, & Bakker, 2010, Jungwirth, Maasz, & Schlöglmann). Mathematics in the workplace: The interest guiding the studies is to understand workers mathematical competences and practices within the complexity of workplace technology (e.g. Gustafsson & Mouwitz, 2010, Noss, Bakker, Hoyles, & Kent, 2007). In the full paper, I will present the analysis, with respect to the framework presented above, of the discourses on containing technology in the selected studies. It is not surprising that technology just like is a contested notion in education in and for the workplace. Nor that the notion of technology depends on the theoretical frame in use. However, the analysis has shown that the discourse on technology is also depending of the stakeholders interest and involvement. In the international research project Adults : From work to school, the primary focus is the incorporated or embodied mathematical competences at work. However, we do not intend to validate the workers mathematical competences in relation to the mathematical qualifications required in vocational education. The purpose is to establish a scientific ground for developing formal and non-formal education in a way that the adult students mathematical competences are recognized and respected. 4

7 Acknowledgements This paper is written as part of the research project Adults : From work to school which is supported by the Swedish Research Council in I thank Gerd Brandell, Per Jönsson, Tamsin Meany and Troels Lange for constructive comments to an earlier version of this draft. References Artique, M. (2006). Towards a methodological tool for comparing the use of learning theories in technology enhanced learning in (TELMA). Paris: Kaleidoscope. Bessot, A. (2000). Geometry at work: Examples from the building industry. In A. Bessot & J. Ridgway (Eds.), Education for in the workplace ( ). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. FitzSimons, G. E. (2002). What counts as? Technologies of power in adult and vocational education. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Gellert, U. (2008). Validity and relevance: Comparing and combining two sociological perspectives on classroom practice. ZDM the International Journal on Mathematics Education, 40, Gustafsson, L., & Mouwitz, L. (2010). Validation of adults proficiency: Fairness in focus. Göteborg: Nationellt centrum för matematikutbildning, Göteborgs universitet. Hoyles, C., Noss, R., Kent, P., & Bakker, A. (2010). Improving at work: The need for techno-mathematical literacies. New York: Routledge. ICMI/ICIAM. (2009). Discussion document of the joint ICMI/ICIAM study on educational interfaces between and industry. L Enseignement Mathématique, 55, Jungwirth, H., Maasz, J., & Schlöglmann, W. (1995). Mathematik in der Weiterbildung. Abschlussbericht zum Forschungsprojekt. Linz: Johannes Kepler Universität. Keitel, C., Kotzmann, E., & Skovmose, O. (1993). Beyond the tunnel vision: Analysing the relationship between, society and technology. In C. Keitel, & K. Tuthven (Eds.), Learning from computers: Mathematics educatication technology (pp ). Berlin: Springer. Leplat, J. (1995). À propos des compétences incorporées. Education Permanente, 123(1995-2), Maasz, J. (1998). Technology transfer: A useful metaphor for university level maths courses for engineers and scientists. In D. Coben, & J. O Donoghue (Eds.), Proceedings of ALM 4 the fourth international conference of adults learning maths a research forum, university of limerick, ireland, 4-6 july, 1997 (pp ). London: Goldsmiths University of London. Maasz, J., & Schlöglmann, W. (Eds.). (1989). Mathematik als Technologie? Wechselwirkungen zwischen Mathematik, Neuen Technologien, Aus- und Weiterbildung. Weimheim, Germany: Deutscher Studien Verlag. Niss, M. (1996). Goals of teaching. In Bishop, Alan J. et al. (Ed.), International handbook of education (pp ). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Noss, R., Bakker, A., Hoyles, C., & Kent, P. (2007). Situating graphs as workplace knowledge. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 65, OECD. (2003). Learning for tomorrow's world. First results from PISA Paris: OECD. Strässer, R. (2003). Mathematics at work: Adults and artefacts. In J. Maasz, & W. Schlöglmann (Eds.), Learning to live and work in our world: ALM10: Proceedings of the 5

8 10th international conference on adults learning in Strobl (Austria) 29th june to 2nd july 2003 (pp ). Linz, Austria: Universitätsverlag Rudolf Trauner. Wedege, T. (2000). Technology, competences and. In D. Coben, G. FitzSimons & J. O'Donoghue (Eds.), Perspectives on adults learning : Research and practice. (pp ). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Wedege, T. (2010). Ethno and mathematical literacy: People knowing in society (Key note speech). In C. Bergsten, E. Jablonka & T. Wedege (Eds.), Mathematics and education: Cultural and social dimensions (pp ). Linköping: Svensk Förening för Matematikdidaktisk Forskning, Linköping universitet. Wedege, T., & Evans, J. (2006). Adults' resistance to learn in school versus adults' competences in work: The case of. Adults Learning Mathematics - an International Journal, 1(2), In this framework, as in the research project Adults : From work to school, technology means workplace technology (meso and micro level see FitzSimons, 2002). However, it is possible to apply the dynamic understanding at the macro level (labor market and society) as well. i The author Tine Wedege Faculty of Education and Society Malmö University, Sweden [email protected] 6

9 Vuxnas matematik: Arbetsdokument / Adults : Working papers Dec 2013 Wedege, Tine & Björklund Boistrup, Lisa (2013). Från arbetet till skolan: Ett forskningsprojekt om vuxnas matematik. Adults : Working papers, 1. Wedege, Tine (2013). Workers mathematical competences as a study object: Implications of general and subjective approaches. Adults : Working papers, 2. Wedege, Tine (2013). What does technology mean in educational research on workplace? Adults : Working papers, 3. Wedege, Tine (2013). Integrating the notion of foreground in critical education with the theory of habitus. Adults : Working papers, 4. To be published in Ernest, P., & Sriramann, B. (Eds.). Critical education: Theory and praxis. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing (IAP). Björklund Boistrup, L. & Gustavsson, L (2014). Mathematics containing activities in adults workplace competences. Adults : Working papers, 5. Submitted to ALM International Journal

10 Adults : In work and for school Working papers School knowledge versus everyday knowledge is a fundamental issue in education. The objective of this research project is to describe, analyse and understand adults -containing work competences including social, ethnic and gender related aspects in relation to the demands made on students mathematical qualifications in formal vocational education. The working model for researching the dynamics of adults in work and for school combines a general approach starting with demands from the labour market and school and a subjective approach starting with the individual s needs and competences in work. The problem complex is studied through empirical investigations quantitative (survey) and qualitative (observations, interviews and document analysis) in interplay with theoretical constructions. Mathematics is integrated within workplace activities and often hidden in technology: mathematical elements are subsumed into routines, structured by mediating artefacts (e.g., texts, tools), and are highly contextdependent. As a discourse of education, lifelong learning assumes that learning takes place in all spheres of life. This project seeks to reverse the one-way assumption from school knowledge to workplace knowledge and to learn from workplace activity what might be appropriate for vocational education and training with implications for general schooling in Sweden. The research project Adults is initiated by professor Tine Wedege and is organised as a co-operation between researchers at Malmö University, Copenhagen University, Melbourne University and Stockholm University. The leaders of the project are Tine Wedege, Malmö University, and Lisa Björklund Boistrup, Stockholm University. The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council and Malmö University. Working papers are either preliminary or completed papers. Some of the working papers are not available in any other form. Others are pre-prints that are to be published elsewhere.