Reflection and professional identity development in design education

Design thinking positions designers as the drivers of the design space yet academic discourse is largely silent on the topic of professional identity development in design. Professional identity, or the dynamic narratives that individuals construct and maintain to integrate their personal qualities with professional responsibilities, has not been widely addressed in design education either. The study investigated the use of reflective writing in an introductory design course to help students explore and interpret their design beliefs, experiences, and self-awareness in support of professional identity development work. The results indicate that authorial presence, analysis, and narrative quality are common qualities in reflective responses, but emotion is notably lacking from student writing. Students were highly reflective in relation to a general experience with uncertainty and were least reflective when discussing ideation processes. Implications for design education and related research are analysed and discussed.     

Revisiting technical workers: professional and organisational identities in the software industry

This paper eradicates some of the myths of software workers as prototypes of the knowledge worker. Based on qualitative and quantitative research conducted in five Information Technology (IT) organisations, it examines how the factors of education, skill level and work role determine the opportunities presented to these workers, and how they are associated with differing levels of organisational identity. At the same time, the data reveal a consistently high professional identity, regardless of work role and qualifications.     

The role of ICTs in the servitisation and degradation of IT professional work

Recently IT work has been subjected to management approaches that apply production methods to service work. Specialised information and communication technologies (ICTs) used by IT professionals have played an important role in this ‘service turn’, but this has not been adequately explored in the literature. Via a qualitative study of IT professionals situated across the servitised IT functions of five UK‐based organisations, this article considers how these ICTs are inscribed with managerial logics that afford control benefits to managers while undermining professional autonomy and job quality. The article makes two main contributions to the literature. Firstly, it sheds light on how ICTs introduced into organisational IT functions support managerial control objectives and impact the job quality of IT professionals. Secondly, it suggests that ICTs may infect the logic of professionalism that takes pride in the quality of the work performance with a dominant managerial logic that places an emphasis on meeting management objectives.     

开拓创新服务大局推动水利技术监督工作迈上新台阶——在全国水利技术监督工作会议上的工作报告

经过各方努力,全国水利技术监督工作会议今天召开了.刚才,胡四一副部长做了重要讲话,充分肯定了水利技术监督工作取得的重要成绩,全面分析了面临的新形势,并对今后工作提出了明确要求.我们要认真学习,深刻领会,贯彻落实.     

关于表彰全国水利技术监督工作先进集体和先进个人的通报

近年来,在邓小平理论和“三个代表”重要思想指引下,全国水利系统技术监督部门工作人员认证贯彻执行党和国家有关技术监督工作的法律法规和方针政策,坚持解放思想,实事求是,与时俱进,开拓创新,适应由传统水利向现代水利、可持续发展水利的转变,围绕新时期水利中心工作,为落实部党组治水新思路提供了有力的技术支撑和保障,水利标准化、认证认可、计量和质量工作取得了很大成绩,涌现出一批先进集体和先进个人。为了充分调动广大水利技术监督工作者的积极性和创造性,进一步提高水利技术监督工作水平,经各单位推荐,部国际合作与科技司和人事劳动…     

Secondary level engineering professional development: content, pedagogy, and challenges

The design of this study was a multiple case study conducted to examine the knowledge, pedagogical principles, and challenges involved in providing engineering-oriented professional development for teachers at the secondary school level. A set of criteria was used to identify five representative projects for analysis in the US. A variety of tools and processes were used to gather data including on-site observations, interviews, focus groups and document reviews. Results of the study indicate that engineering professional development tends to be based on work focused on curriculum development and implementation. Given the distinct design orientation of engineering, it is not surprising that the focus of engineering-oriented professional development tends to concentrate on engaging activities, with a primary focus on process rather than content. A key outcome of this study was an observed lack of a clearly formulated and articulated conceptual foundation for secondary level engineering. Regarding pedagogy, the researchers identified a heavy emphasis on modeling and applied learning. At the same time, the researchers observed a lack of emphasis on reflection and analysis of the pedagogical processes and techniques used to shape teachers’ ability to teach engineering to their students. The findings of the study also include concerns raised by teachers as they engage in engineering professional development. These include concerns about technical knowledge, particularly with the use of specialized software applications and other tools, as well as with practical issues such as time, resources, and availability of appropriate curriculum.     

Skill, gender and technical change in a Nordic environment: typesetting in Iceland and Sweden

Drawing on empirical material from comparative research on jobbing printing in Iceland and Sweden, the author argues that the typesetting process has been subjected to deskilling, and he stresses that the development has been far more complex than often is realised. He concludes that gender, firm size, and production run and variety, must be considered in order to explain the diversity in the typesetting process.     

Hybrid workspace: re-spatialisations of work, organisation and management

New information and communication technologies enable the spatial reconfiguration of work opening up possibilities for work to take place across multiple locations. This paper explores the implications of hybrid workspace through a new empirical study. It argues that spatial hybridity changes the nature of work, organisation and management across domestic space, organisational space and in cyberspace.     

Being appropriately professional: the interaction between professionalism,ICT and knowledge transfer

This article examines how professionalism impacts on the interaction and knowledge transfer of professionals within open plan workspaces and between distributed workplaces when using ICT. Knowledge is key to the system of professions and the power of professionals. At the same time, professional work requires professionals to behave in an appropriate and professional‐like manner, and this includes sharing knowledge with colleagues. Yet, the ideology of professionalism is changing. Alongside, professionals are working differently, including across distributed workplaces and often interacting via ICT. These shifting contexts make understanding the interaction between professionalism, knowledge transfer and ICT crucial. Drawing on Goffman's work, particularly his exposition of interaction rituals, interviews with accountants reveal that when using ICT, the professional framework of interaction – what can be said, who has the right to speak and who is the audience – meets appropriateness in sometimes contradictory ways, potentially limiting the growth and propagation of knowledge.     

Mediation of artefacts,tools and technical objects: an international and french perspective

In this article we present a review of literature on the concept of Artefact, Tool and Technical Object in the light of in sociocultural approach. Particular attention is given to present and discuss the French research tradition on the Technical Object and Technological education. The aim is to give a broad perspective to explore the mediation between the individual and their environment.     

Computing occupations: organizational power, work transition and collective mobility

The computing occupations are in a state of transition between a technical service and something more central to organizational power and decision-making. This process has had complex implications for the nature of computing work and for careers. There is no certainty that embryonic changes will carry through. But neither should the chances of these occupations of mounting a 'collective mobility project' be written off early.     

Remixing work,family and leisure: teleworkers' experiences of everyday life

This paper explores whether and in what ways telework is associated with a reconfiguration or remixing of daily work, family and leisure activities. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 51 teleworkers employed in a financial organisation in Canada. For some, telework was a condition of employment, while others negotiated part‐time telework arrangements with managers. Using interpretive thematic analysis techniques, intersections and inter‐relationships between experiences of work, family and leisure were identified. Three main themes emerged, including the need to not only protect, but also containing work time and space; the significance of family and being available for children; and, the relative devaluation of leisure. Although it was anticipated that differences between involuntary and voluntary teleworkers would be evident, gender and family stage were more influential in structuring daily life. The flexibility of telework was valued, but there was little evidence of a reconfiguration of life spheres except for women with children at home.     

Other voices,other rooms: differentiating social identity development in organisational and Pro‐Am virtual teams

This paper advocates a social identity approach as a way to overcome the normative limitations of existing virtual team identity research. We also explore how social identity understandings of virtual team identity could benefit from incorporating comparisons between organisational and professional amateur virtual teams; and a focus on technologically mediated dialogues.     

Knowledge work in distributed environments: issues and illusions

Although Finland is one of the most advanced and competitive economies in the world, with a sophisticated technological infrastructure, only four per cent of Finnish wage earners regard themselves as doing telework, and a further four per cent had tried telework. Empirical evidence of telework is presented in this paper.     

Flexible specialisation, work organisation and skills: approaching the 'second industrial divide'

Piore and Sabel's concept of flexible specialisation (FS) has initiated a lively debate between'optimists','pessimists'and 'sceptics'. The potential impact of FS on work organisation and skills is examined through a review of industry case studies with discussion of the implications for management, government and unions with respect to training policy.     

抓住机遇立足创新谋划"十一五"水利科技工作

去年11月,水利部在成都召开了全国水利科技工作会议,对“十五”水利科技工作进行了总结,对今后一个时期的水利科技工作进行了部署。会后,有关流域、地方相继召开了各自的水利科技工作会,贯彻落实全国水利科技工作会议精神,并出台了一系列促进水利科技创新和科技人才培养的办法、措施,有力地推动了全国水利科技工作的开展。今天我们在这里召开全国水利科技处长会议,目的是总结这段时间以来的水利科技工作,研究“十一五”水利科技工作,讨论《关于加强水利科技创新的若干意见》（征求意见稿）。下面,我向大家通报一下水利科技工作的形势、进展,并对下步工作谈几点想法,供大家参考。     

At home on the electronic frontier: work,gender and the information highway

This article presents the findings of field research investigating the experiences of a wide spectrum of home‐based information workers within the context of discourses on technological change and labour market restructuring. The social relations being (re)produced in such settings, particularly as they relate to both common‐sense and theoretical notions of flexibility, are analysed.     

增强科技意识创新科技管理

文章系统总结了扎赉诺尔煤业公司供暖公司依靠科技进步提高企业素质的经验。