In-field training in the police: Learning in an ethical grey area?

Abstract

Purpose Although workplace learning is an important part of professional learning, little is known about the unethical aspects of workplace learning. This study aims to describe students’ learning experiences from in-field training in the police. This paper aims to examine how workplace learning can challenge proper ethical professional development and thus become a question of ethical concern. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on open-ended questions in a questionnaire among Norwegian police students (N = 277) who had ended their one year’s in-field training and had returned to campus for the third and final year of police education. The data are analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis. Findings The paper presents two findings. First, the students learn best from assignments that push them beyond their comfort zone. Second, students struggle with their own expectations of themselves as police officers. The findings suggest that workplace learning leaves students aspiring to demonstrate their capability to be a police officer, rather than focusing on learning to be a police officer. Practical implications The study can provide organisations such as educations, public services and businesses with better understanding on how to enrich learning in their on-the-job training manuals and programmes to evolve ethical professional behaviour. Ethical considerations can help leadership to improve efficiency and performance at the workplace. Originality/value How the potentially unethical aspects of workplace learning can influence the profession’s ethical attitude is an understudied topic in studies on learning to become a professional.

The Window of Opportunity

“…This understanding reflects what Håland and Tjora (2006, p. 996) claim to be work-oriented and grounded in the phenomenological, humanistic-and social constructivist perspective. This last implies that competence is defined and developed from workplace-and life-long learning (see Lave & Wenger, 2011;Gherardi & Nicolini, 2002;Hoel & Christensen, 2020). Competence is developed through participation both within and outside of (e.g.…”

“…A shared characteristic of these studies (Chan et al, 2003;Finstad, 2000;Hoel, 2011;Edvardsen, 2019) is how the police officers' experiences and actions express 'competence-in-use' . Although competence derived from experience and mediated as a process (the phenomenological, humanistic-and social constructivist perspective) can ensure sound ethical practice (see Hoel, 2011;Hoel & Christensen, 2020;Martin & Staines, 1994cited in Garavan & McGuire, 2001, this perspective is not valued in the bulk of literature discussing competence (Ellström & Kock, 2008;Lindberg & Rantalao, 2014).…”

(Non-)learning to police: A framework for understanding police learning

“…In order to prepare for the job, police recruit programs around the world regularly entail three planned learning settings: (a) theory informing class-room settings at the police academy, the police college, or the police university (Frevel, 2018;Leek, 2020); (b) practical skills training like conflict management training, traffic stop training, etc., ; and work-integrated learning through supervised and accompanied working in the field, otherwise known as fieldtraining (Engelson, 1999;Hoel and Christensen, 2020).…”

“…Field-training officers-like police trainers-are role models and peers and are of critical importance for police learning (Belur et al, 2019;Staller et al, 2022a). They can be a source of ethical practice but also of unethical practice (Fekjaer et al, 2014;Hoel and Christensen, 2020). For example, the study on police students by Fekjaer et al (2014) showed that, during field training, police students changed their attitude to be more in line with negative characteristics of street cop culture.…”

The problem of entanglement: Biases and fallacies in police conflict management

“…For example, police institutions have a clear hierarchy and chain of command. A recruit in training can be at risk of “behaving like his field training officer wants the behavior to be seen” (Hoel and Christensen, 2020) and might not challenge these views. As such, managerial authority may create a source for bias.…”