Digital peer learning for transformative professional agency: The case of homelessness practitioners in Finland

Abstract

Digital lifelong learning and more specifically digital peer learning (DPL) can play a major role to foster transformative agency in professions and occupations which are critically positioned for responding to acute societal needs. Yet so far, no published studies seem to have focused on this. This article aims at filling this gap with the help of a study in which online workshops and web forums were created for supporting homelessness practitioners in Finland to share and discuss scattered practical innovations and to generate advanced solutions to problems in their work. By these means, the study also generated data to see if transformative agency takes place among these professionals by means of DPL, how this happens, and with what results for the critical field of homelessness work. This study opens up a new agenda for research and development in lifelong learning in a digital era. What is already known about this topic As digital peer learning (DPL) can be largely organized by the learners themselves, it carries significant advantages for lifelong learning and work development: a close link to the field of practice and to clients' and stakeholders' needs, potentially a wide reach of practitioners, little institutional investment, and cost‐effectiveness. The application of DPL raises a number of challenges we summarize here as the spectator challenge, the challenge of drowning in details, and the discontinuity challenge. What this paper adds DPL literature lacks specific contributions on how it can support practitioners to identify and implement concrete solutions to pressing needs in society. This article shows that DPL may facilitate professional transformative agency in such a way that the two processes can intersect with one another and generate concrete and effective lifelong learning solutions for much needed developments in critical fields such as homelessness work. Implications for practice and/or policy Cultivating personally and professionally meaningful conflicts of motives evokes emotional involvement and potentially also learners' curiosity and cognitive engagement, opening an avenue to transcend the spectator stance. Experience and discursive elaboration of a conflict of motives directs learners to focus on the essential, thus providing an effective means for overcoming the risk of drowning in details. This can be facilitated by offering artifacts, metaphors, or models which may be taken up by practitioners in DPL as support or “second stimuli” to engage in transformative initiatives. To transcend the discontinuity challenge salient in many DPL processes, it is of particular importance to find ways to embed DPL and engage the learners in long‐term change efforts. Even relatively short online workshops and web forum discussions can gain momentum when efforts are made to establish links between past experiences and the future prospects.

Tackling the challenge of peer learning in hybrid and online universities

“…The classroom may, in this case, be a live or synchronous online session bringing together the students and teacher, while the asynchronous activities, or those followed at their own pace, could include peer learning. In considering the use of digital environments, one may refer to “digital peer learning” (Sannino et al, 2021 ), to emphasise the role of the technology used.…”

Discussing the Concept of Crisis in Cultural-historical Activity Research: a Dialectical Perspective

“…It is crucial to underline the enormous importance of carrying out interventions, collaborative projects with a future-oriented, transformative agenda for marginalised groups in different countries and continents. Through active participation in these collaborative projects, people learn and develop to transform the practices of their communities rather than adapting to them (Sales et al, 2020 ; Vianna & Stetsenko, 2014 ; Sannino et al, 2021 ; Liberali & Shimoura, 2018 ; Stetsenko, 2021 ; Leite et al, 2020 ).…”

Computationel Tankegang i Matematik: Et studie af det pædagogiske personales transformative agency i et kulturhistorisk analytisk perspektiv

“…Tidligere undersøgelser (Sannino et al, 2021;Hopwood, 2017;Morselli & Sannino, 2021) har vist, at når deltagere kollektivt laerer ekspansivt, skaber de en ny vision og et langsigtet engagement. Nyerere forskning peger på, at Transformative Agency by Double Stimulation (TADS) kan ses som en central proces for ekspansiv laering (Hopwood, 2017;Sannino et al, 2021). Dette er illustreret i modellen (fig.…”

“…Transformativ agency afviger fra klassiske opfattelser af agency, idet det udspringer af mødet med modsaetninger såsom spaendinger, forstyrrelse og konflikter i den kollektive virksomhed (Sannino, 2015a;Hopwood et al, 2022) stimulus), forkastes begreber om agency, hvor agency ses som en "følelse", som folk har eller som en individuel evne (Sannino, 2020;Hopwood et al, 2022). TADSprocessen indebaerer, at mennesker bryder ud af fastlåste omstaendigheder ved at forvandle disse gennem brug af artefakter, der udvikles og anvendes undervejs (Sannino et al, 2021). Ved at gøre dette aendrer deltagerne omstaendighederne for deres handlinger samt sig selv (Hopwood et al, 2022).…”

“…Ved at gøre dette aendrer deltagerne omstaendighederne for deres handlinger samt sig selv (Hopwood et al, 2022). Teorien om TADS er forholdsvis stadigvaek i sin vorden, hvilket ses i arbejdet med at udvikle en model over TADS-processen (Sannino, 2015a;Sannino et al, 2021) Et apparatus kan anses som en funktionel proces, hvor en systematiseret aktivitet kan udføres. Apparatus 1 består af fire faser (Sannino, 2015a).…”