Practicum The Practicum: The Domestic Work of University Teaching

Lesley Cooper Janice Orrell

Practicum coordinators and teachers are the 'Cinderellas' of university teaching. Kept invisible and doing the dirty work with little reward. Interviews with 30 practicum coordinators across many disciplines disclosed a view that their appointment to their role was not a promotion, but the acquisition of additional responsibilities to their already overly demanding workload. What is more, in undertaking the coordination and supervision role in practicum, they acquired an impediment to their personal advancement and attracted few, if any, university rewards. These conditions are reminiscent of the Waldon and Walkerdine (1982), critique of the labor of mothers who are charged with the role of initial mathematics and literacy teachers as part of their parental role. It is assumed that these responsibilities will be easily included with their existing house keeping duties. Since 1996, Flinders University has scrutinised the practicum through research and through dialogue in practicum focussed forums. The perception of those who include work experience placements in courses at the expense of more theoretical classroom teaching is that practicums are beneficial to student learning. The practicum is perceived as a useful opportunity for students to apply their theoretical classroom learning under authentic conditions. This context, it is hoped, will give greater meaning, relevance and motivation to classroom learning. The practicum is also perceived as a means for students to become aware of the utility of their developing generic reasoning and research skills to the workplace. A significant potential benefit for students in work-based placement, is that often have one on one guidance and instruction with immediate feedback on their performance. This is rarely possible in classroom situations. In professional and vocational education, practicums are beneficial for students to confirm or adjust career decisions and for their initial socialisation into the profession or vocation. For all types of programs, practicums are considered opportunities for previously unemployed students to become ‘workplace literate’ and to establish valuable links and credibility with the relevant industries to achieve employment advantages upon graduation. If they are achieved, these wide-ranging and indisputable educational and career benefits have occurred without the expense of university classroom space. With all these potential benefits, is there a problem? Consultations with practicum coordinators have produced a construct of the practicum as a site of enormous potential for authentic student learning and for authentic relationships between the university and the community. Coordinators also constructed the practicum as a site of multiple and complex educational, legal and ethical responsibilities, including duty of care, which is highly problematic. Successful management of practicum in order to achieve the potential benefits for the students and the university, requires a sophisticated pedagogical, industrial and legal knowledge base, considerable

Practicum credibility outside the university and advanced communication and negotiation skills. Yet, practicum coordinators and teachers have constructed the realities of their role as invisible within the university and the faculties that they work in, and marginal in both the workplace and the university. Practicum work is essential and central to the university's role in providing society with well prepared, work ready graduates, yet it does not enjoy that kind of status at home in the university. Like much domestic work in the home, the practicum fails to be publicly acknowledged for its contribution! This claim is based on two institution wide investigations and a review of the extant literature on the practicum. The first investigation was conducted at Flinders University in 1996, when the new Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Anne Edwards funded research to understand teaching from the viewpoint of the teachers themselves (Cooper, Lawson and Orrell, 1997) This research was to be the basis of specific programs to address educational quality,. As part of this research, a focus group was held to gain an understanding of the specific concerns of practicum coordinators and supervisors. The second and larger, investigation was an audit of all practicum programs in our university to gain an in depth understanding of what occurred in the different programs (Orrell, Cooper and Jones, 1999). This was conducted in 1998-1999, as part of a CUTSD Organisational grant. Thirty practicum program coordinators who represented all sectors of the university were interviewed. Some 82 discreet topics already incorporating practicum programs were identified and a dozen more are to commence in 2000. As part of the audit the unique features and a range of impressive innovative practices of each program were documented and will be shared on a web site. We also recorded common problems and concerns. In this paper, we will put aside the diverse innovations and focus on the concerns of academic staff who are the coordinators and supervisors of students’ work experience placements and the perceptions they have of their role and status in the university.

Academics’ Perceptions of their Practicum Coordination and Supervision Roles Few work experience placement coordinators had high profile roles in the university. We found that there are largely one of two possible profiles for most coordinators. One is experienced academics who are committed to developing educational and employment benefits for students that the practicum provided. Very few of these are at Associate Professor or Professor levels. Many of these staff at the lower levels of appointment believe that their chance for promotion are considerably compromised by their practicum responsibilities. The other group is recently appointed staff, many of whom are appointed directly from practice positions and who have had little experience of universities or of teaching. Some described their role in the practicum as having ‘drawn the short straw’ because of its marginal status in the order of university and faculty responsibilities and because it was often an ‘add on’ task for the academics involved. They all had core

Practicum teaching and research demands, with research consequently gaining the least attention. The work and contribution of practicum to student learning and the university profile, was also largely invisible. Universities have few practicum specific policies, and even fewer specifically allocated resources. This invisibility was also carried through to the place of the practicum in departmental or faculty structures and resource provisions. Practicum coordinators are responsible for much of the associated clerical work as well as the finding and maintenance of work experience placements. Not surprisingly, and considering its low status, it was also found that this work was largely undertaken by women, with the exception of male dominated science and engineering courses. The nature of practicum learning, teaching and assessment is complex and under researched. We describe it as ‘hot learning’. The actual core experience is often brief, and having to consider agency and client interests along with student learning. As a result there is often considerable risk involved if the student ‘doesn’t get it right’ the first time. There is not the opportunity to be as organised as formal classroom learning or for critical review as it occurs. It is certainly more difficult to plan for, or to organise, because of the messiness and unpredictable nature of the workplace. The experiences themselves are variable between placements, yet practicum programs have to ensure some kind of standard learning outcomes for students and the assessment of them. These teaching responsibilities demand very sophisticated pedagogical understanding and intentional teaching practices (Washboard, 1996). Yet, there is no induction into practicum teaching roles for university staff and minimal induction programs for nonuniversity staff who teach in the workplace. This essential training of non-university staff is yet another responsibility assumed by university practicum staff that is not accounted for in workload calculations.

Practicum Coordination and Teaching as Domestic Work Educationally speaking, these problematic conditions are even more problematic because of their invisible, marginal nature. Our understanding of the problem was deepened upon hearing Ken Zeichner, in his keynote address at the Practical Experience in Professional Education (PEPE) Conference in Christchurch, NZ in January 1999, metaphorically characterise practicum teachers as the ‘domestic workers’ of university teaching. Practicum Staff are the domestic labourers of the university, but their work is the most critical to the learning process of students in professional and vocational oriented awards. (Ken Zeichner keynote address at PEPI Conference, Christchurch, NZ January,1999)

Practicum What we have found in examining the work of practicum teachers and the extant literature, Zeichner's is justified in his attribution of the metaphor of 'domestic work'. The nature of practicum coordination and supervision work lends itself to the analogy of domestic work. Apart from its invisibility, like the private domain of housework, it is isolated, ever present and repetitive (Bittman, 1991). Its central focus is its struggle with insufficient resources and competing interests. The coordinator of practicum, like the domestic worker, is responsible for apportioning scarce resources. At the same time they manage the well being of others. They also arbitrate the competing interests of students, external agencies, their clients and the educational demands of the university program. In keeping with the prevailing analogy, the role of work place supervisors is often conceived of as ‘baby sitting’ students. The supervisory responsibilities are merely added on to existing work responsibilities. The value of the task itself is trivialised with rarely any monetary compensation. Like the domestic worker, work-based supervisors and teachers are deemed to have the 'natural skills' because of their knowledge of the workplace, so little need is perceived for formal induction into the teaching role. Washboard (1996), however, argues that practicum teaching, to be effective, and to avoid entrenching out dated work practices, needs to be intentional and critically reflective. Confronting the Poor Status of Practicum Work To change the status quo, it is important to acknowledge, publicly that the effective conduct of coordination and teaching roles requires: • Efficient organisational skills, • Depth of knowledge of industrial policies and legal and ethical matters, • Considerable expertise in interpersonal communication and conflict resolution, and especially, • Knowledge of the conditions that enable optimal learning from experience, and • Knowledge of both a discipline and the world of work practices. What is not recognised it that, if practicums are handed poorly, considerable risk is involved for the student as a learner and a person, for the agency as provider of goods and services and for the institution, legally and ethically. Yet, we found that there is little induction into the managerial and pedagogical roles of practicum coordinator, supervisor or teacher. Supervision and learning in work experience placements is regarded as natural, easy and unproblematic. Such reductionist assumptions are also true of domestic work. In reality, management and teaching in the practicum is complex, risky and demanding, Yet, the conduct of the practicum is embodied in tradition and is undervalued and left to the marginal few, despite contemporary social changes. Why is this? Why should those who occupy a pivotal role in providing practical learning experience be so marginal in their own workplace? Again, like domestic work it is largely conducted in isolation. In addition, this university domestic work is unorganised in terms of industrial and organisational representation. Furthermore, the simplistic reduction of its complex pedagogical, managerial, entrepreneurial, legal and

Practicum ethical considerations is largely unchallenged by those involved in its practice. Its potential and real contribution to the place of the university in the industrial, commercial professional and local communities remain largely unrecognised. Given the associated humanitarian, legal and ethical risks for universities, the considerable challenge for effective teaching as well as the personal cost to academics involved in conducting practicums, it is surprising that practicum occurs at all. An elaboration of the associated risks, costs and challenges has the potential to immobilise those who would include them in their curriculum. Nevertheless, they do not. Some institutions have almost 40% of undergraduates engaged in practicums in any one year! This is because the practicum abounds with actual and potential value.

Revaluing the Practicum within the University Students place considerable value on the practicum components of their courses. It provides opportunity to review and confirm career choices from a more informed point of view and a chance to begin their socialisation into their future professional roles. Astute academics exploit students’ practicum experiences in the classroom as a resource of critical learning experiences that can be a basis for critical reflection using new theoretical frameworks. Entrepreneurial academics use their supervisory and coordination roles in practicum as a source of building authentic relationships with their industry partners that can develop into collaborative research and make substantial contributions for both the industry and the university. The wise university administrator recognises that well conducted practicums establish the worth of the university amongst it local and professional community. Astute organisations use the practicum as an opportunity to make theirs a learning organisation and to have projects and research conducted that might normally not occur.

Courses of Action for Universities Given the potential embodied in the practicum, the question needs to be asked:, What is needed for optimal benefits in terms of student learning and contribution to the university and the workplace and reduced risk for the university, while at the same time reducing the exposure to human and organisational risk cost to individual? Universities as organisations have major readjustments to make to reverse their failure to adequately resource and value the practicum. Practicum coordinators need to be identified as having a specific responsibility in the university profile. They need to be given sustained induction into their roles so that they are familiar with the legal obligations and pedagogical intentions of their role. Their isolation needs to be abolished. Opportunities need to be provided for sharing accumulated expertise across

Practicum campus, and across institutions. Most importantly, contributions and achievements of practicum coordinators also need particular recognition by the university in promotion and tenure and specific weighting in workload calculations.

Courses of Action for Practicum Academics Individual academics that coordinate and supervise in practicum can no longer afford to sit by the fireplace bemoaning their position like the fabled domesticated Cinderella waiting for either the fairy godmother or the handsome prince to rescue her. Practicum managers and teachers must contribute to breaking their own marginalisation and reject their own Cinderella Syndrome! How might this be done? Reduction of their isolation is an important first step. We have found in interviews and forums focussing on the practicum (Cooper, Lawson & Orrell, 1997), that many of the problems experienced by academics working in the practicum are similar, irrespective of the discipline or the workplace. Joining with other university academics who have similar responsibilities contributes significantly to owning one's own accumulated expertise and to reducing the frustration of finding that one is often reinventing the wheel in addressing common management and supervision problems. We have found that the development of a university wide, cross faculty, forum of practicum coordinators and teachers has led to valuable dissemination of innovations and shared problem solving. It has also led to collaboration between administrative staff and academic staff around policy and legal issues. Best practice in the practicum has become a shared University problem rather than a discipline based and practicum coordinator specific, private one. We have also found that Practicum coordinators require appropriate entrepreneurial skills to do their work and need support in developing these. Teaching and learning in complex work settings is under researched. Collaborative research with similarly placed academics, on the pedagogy of work placement, experiential learning and teaching would also contribute to practicum academics’ sense of ownership of their 'wisdom of experience' as academics. At the same time it would increase the profile of practicum education in universities and contribute to one’s own, and the university’s research output. For similar reasons academics involved with the practicum ought to consider how they can effectively use their time and connections in the workplace by initiating collaborative research with their industry partners. These measures require appropriate weightings in workload calculations and resource allocation. A magic wand will not be readily found for this, but the collective advocacy for recognition of practicum work with university and faculty administration and unions will begin to effect change. In summary, practicum work needs to become a specific category of university work. As such, it ought to have specific weightings in workload calculations. This work ought not to be subsumed under classroom teaching, but identified as a separate category that requires different policies and resource allocation. Universities need to

Practicum provide for public recognition of this in publicity and promotion criteria. Most importantly, given the high level of responsibility involved, coordinators need careful induction into their roles, recognising the legal, moral, entrepreneurial and pedagogical issues. Lastly, practicum workers need to rescue themselves, by rejecting their isolation, by collaborating with university and work colleagues to make more public the unique contribution they make to their universities and workplaces. References Bittman, M. (1991) Juggling Time: How Australian Families Use Time. CPN Publications Pty Ltd, Canberrra. Cooper, L., Lawson, M. & Orrell, J. (1997) Raising Issues about Teaching: Views of Academic Staff at Flinders University, Flinders Institute for the Study of Teaching, Adelaide. Orrell, J, Cooper L, & Jones, R. (1999) The Practicum Report, Number 1: An Audit of the Practicum at Flinders University. Unpublished report, Flinders University, Adelaide. Shelton, B. (1992) Women, Men and Time, Gender Differences in Paid Work, Housework and Leisure, Greenwood Press, New York Waldon, R. & Walkerdine, V. (1982) Girls and mathematics: the early years: a review of literature and an account of original research. University of London Institute of Education, London. Washbourn, P. (1996) ‘Experiential Learning: Is Experience the Best Teacher?’ Liberal Education, 82 (3) 10-1. Lesley Cooper is an Associate Professor in the school of Social Administration, Social Work. She is a researcher in field experience and the assessment of clinical practice and has written and published widely on this topic. Currently she is jointly coordinating a CUTSD funded project into issues surrounding the practicum. Janice Orrell is the Academic Coordinator of academic development in the Staff Development and Training Unit at Flinders University. She has worked in community development, teacher education and nursing education and researches in the area of assessment in higher education and transfer of learning in clinical education. Currently she is jointly coordinating a CUTSD funded project into issues surrounding the practicum.