DIVISION OF OCCUPATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
VIRTUAL CONFERENCE 2021
THURSDAY 7 - FRIDAY 8 JANUARY 2021, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
Affiliation
School of Education and Social Work, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland
Bio
Dr Tracey Colville has 30 years’ academic and practice experience in education and psychology. She is currently a Lecturer in Teaching and Research in Educational Psychology at Dundee University whilst on a career break from her post as Depute Principal Psychologist in Edinburgh Psychological Services. Before moving to Dundee, she was Programme Director of the MSc Educational Psychology at Strathclyde University. She is registered as an Educational Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council and is a registered teacher with the General Teaching Council Scotland with 14 years’ experience in primary education. She holds Chartered Psychologist/Scientist status with the British Psychological Society (BPS). She is an Associate Fellow of the BPS and member of the Scottish Division of Educational Psychology Training Committee.
Dr Colville has delivered national/international conference presentations and published work on academic and practice topics in education and psychology. She is a review editor for several peer-reviewed journals. She is currently a member of the BPS Working Differently group publishing several practitioner/public guidance documents. Current academic research focuses upon Cultural-historical activity theory in educational and work settings. A key focus of her practice-based work has been the development of strengths-based multi-agency meetings in schools in Scotland and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Public research profile/ORCID link: orcid.org/0000-0003-1887-7962
Title
New ways of working: An activity theory perspective
Abstract
An immediate impact of the pandemic on the world of work was mass migration to remote working. In turn, this had brought into sharp relief the potential and need to develop new ways of working that reflect societal shifts to more flexible or agile ways of meeting worker, customer, service user organisational and societal goals. To do this, we may also need more nuanced theoretical, conceptual and methodological tools. This paper presents an activity-theoretical research perspective that may be useful to guide sustainable change in future work practices and organizational development. The focus is upon learning and agency in the workplace via collaborative research enquiry with stakeholders and researchers to find more fluid, relational ways of working across traditional work boundaries, structures and roles while maintaining a shared focus of activity or goal. Work is seen as object-oriented practice that can be transformed via formative interventions that focus upon the contradiction-driven character of work activity. Activity theory emphasises the need for greater collaboration across geographical and traditional/discrete boundaries with the notion of knot-working –hierarchical control and power is less stable and knots of collaboration and coalition must be reconstructed over and over according to the shifting needs/goals of work systems as people come and go and services and businesses regroup.
Email
Affiliation
School of Education and Social Work, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland
Bio
Dr Tracey Colville has 30 years’ academic and practice experience in education and psychology. She is currently a Lecturer in Teaching and Research in Educational Psychology at Dundee University whilst on a career break from her post as Depute Principal Psychologist in Edinburgh Psychological Services. Before moving to Dundee, she was Programme Director of the MSc Educational Psychology at Strathclyde University. She is registered as an Educational Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council and is a registered teacher with the General Teaching Council Scotland with 14 years’ experience in primary education. She holds Chartered Psychologist/Scientist status with the British Psychological Society (BPS). She is an Associate Fellow of the BPS and member of the Scottish Division of Educational Psychology Training Committee.
Dr Colville has delivered national/international conference presentations and published work on academic and practice topics in education and psychology. She is a review editor for several peer-reviewed journals. She is currently a member of the BPS Working Differently group publishing several practitioner/public guidance documents. Current academic research focuses upon Cultural-historical activity theory in educational and work settings. A key focus of her practice-based work has been the development of strengths-based multi-agency meetings in schools in Scotland and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Public research profile/ORCID link: orcid.org/0000-0003-1887-7962
Title
New ways of working: An activity theory perspective
Abstract
An immediate impact of the pandemic on the world of work was mass migration to remote working. In turn, this had brought into sharp relief the potential and need to develop new ways of working that reflect societal shifts to more flexible or agile ways of meeting worker, customer, service user organisational and societal goals. To do this, we may also need more nuanced theoretical, conceptual and methodological tools. This paper presents an activity-theoretical research perspective that may be useful to guide sustainable change in future work practices and organizational development. The focus is upon learning and agency in the workplace via collaborative research enquiry with stakeholders and researchers to find more fluid, relational ways of working across traditional work boundaries, structures and roles while maintaining a shared focus of activity or goal. Work is seen as object-oriented practice that can be transformed via formative interventions that focus upon the contradiction-driven character of work activity. Activity theory emphasises the need for greater collaboration across geographical and traditional/discrete boundaries with the notion of knot-working –hierarchical control and power is less stable and knots of collaboration and coalition must be reconstructed over and over according to the shifting needs/goals of work systems as people come and go and services and businesses regroup.