Conference Agenda

Agency can be generally defined as an individual’s capacity to “act purposefully and reflectively on their world” (Rogers & Wetzel, 2013, p. 63). Higher education students’ agency has been studied from various perspectives, such as students’ self-efficacy and competence beliefs or participatory structures (e.g., Lipponen & Kumpulainen, 2011; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2012;). However, studies that combine different dimensions of agency and use multimodal methods for studying agency are rare (but see Jääskelä et al., 2017; 2020). In this study agency is approached from the perspective of students’ perceptions of their personal, relational and participatory resources for agency (Jääskelä et al., 2020). This perspective can be seen to represent a subject-centered approach (e.g., Eteläpelto et al., 2013; Su, 2013) to agency as it acknowledges the meaning of a person’s own experience and sense-making “of having (and using of) personal, relational and context-specific participatory resources to engage in intentional and meaningful action and learning” (Jääskelä et al., 2021, p. 793). However, this view also acknowledges that agency is situational, connected to contextual conditions and constructed in interaction between the person and the socio-cultural context (Eteläpelto et al., 2013; Kayi-Aydar, 2015; Lasky, 2005). Therefore, as Priestley and colleagues (Priestley, Edwards, Priestley & Miller, 2012) argue, agency is not merely a capacity of the individual.

The focus in this study is to explore university students’ perceived agency resources (personal, relational, and participatory, Jääskelä et al., 2020) from the perspective of positioning (Arvaja, 2016; Harrè & van Langenhove, 1999; Kayi-Adar, 2015, York & Kirshner, 2015; Wortham, 2001). Positioning helps to understand the interactional nature of agency as positioning takes place in relation to others (others broadly speaking; e.g., other people, material and socio-cultural learning context) (Wortham, 2001). Agency, thus, is dynamic and shaped by social interaction and context (Kayi-Aydar, 2015; Priestley et al., 2012). Consequently, the same student may take a more agentic position in one context and less in another. Kayi-Aydar (2015) suggests that agency is possible to achieve when students are enabled to take agentic positions in their (learning) context. When students take agentic positions, it implies their capacity and willingness to act. Therefore, it is important to study students’ perceived agency in relation to possibilities available and created through the pedagogical arrangements. As York and Kirshner (2015) argue, teachers’ (discursive) activity and learning environment for their part enables or constrains agency. However, even though the learning environment may enable agentic positions through the pedagogical means students may resist the positions available and supported (Kayi-Aydar, 2015). Therefore, the interest in this study also lies in studying agency as a personalized construct (e.g., Su, 2011) focusing on different meanings the students negotiate for agency while participating in the same course. This necessitates also considering students’ life and study histories in manifestation of agency (e.g., Arvaja, Sarja & Rönnberg, 2022; Wortham, 2001).

The aim of this study is to explore 1) what kinds of agency positions the students - who are participating in two university courses (teacher education and information technology) - take in relation to their experienced personal, relational and participatory resources for agency and 2) what kinds of similarities and/or differences there are between positionings within the students participating in the same course or between the students in different courses.

Project-based approaches to learning is becoming increasingly common in higher education (Nerland & Prøitz, 2018).The assumption is that student-centric, collaborative learning activities provide students with both academic, professional skills and social skills, such as learning to work in and as a team. It is also argued that pedagogical approaches whereby students work on projects with real-world problems provide authentic educational experiences that can bridge the gap between education and work life. Empirical research has shown that project-based learning has a positive effect on student achievement (Chen & Yang, 2019), and also on students’ motivation, experience of relevance, and creativity (Damşa, 2018). The large part of this research, including systematic reviews and meta-analysis, has been conducted in K-12 education (Chen & Yang, 2019), but in recent years it has been rapidly increasing also within higher education.

A claim that is often made is that there is a lack of process-oriented studies on student collaboration in higher education. It is argued that the literature is dominated by ‘effect-oriented’ research that focuses on the benefits of pedagogical approaches on a range of individual variables, such as academic achievement, student satisfaction or skill development (e.g. Janssen et al., 2010; Sjølie et al., 2021). The problem with this line of research is that it employs a ‘black box’ approach with which it is difficult to understand and explain the variability in the research findings (Janssen et al., 2010). Consequently, we seem to know little about why some student teams function well and foster the learning process, and how factors, such as diversity or complexity of the problem to be solved influence the process, project outcome and student learning.

This claim is, however, not sufficiently substantiated. The research literature on student teams or group work in higher education makes up a diverse, fragmented, complex body of research that is inherently heterogenic and multidisciplinary. Research is often contained within specific educational programs (e.g. teacher education, engineering, or health education), with limited references across the educational settings and with discipline specific terms. The different educational settings often focus on various pedagogical methods, using different terms for the same approach or the same terms in different ways. So far, there exist no reviews on student project collaboration that take into account the diversity in research in higher education. Reviews have either been conducted within a specific discipline (e.g. Matturro et al., 2019; Pow-Sang et al., 2017) or for a specific method (e.g. Guo et al., 2020; Knutas & J., 2015; Reimschisel et al., 2017). In Guo et al.’s (2020) review, for example, the authors include only studies that use the term “project-based learning” in the title. This excludes many studies that use other terms for project-based approaches (or not use it at all in the title).

This paper presents the result of a large systematic mapping study on the empirical research that has been conducted on students’ project collaboration in higher education. The study used a wide search to include the diversity of terms, methods and approaches used across higher education. The research question is: What characterizes the empirical process-oriented research that has been undertaken on students' project collaboration in higher education? The map can be used to identify research gaps and suggest a research agenda for project-based approaches to learning in higher education. The map also provides an opportunity to identify patterns and thus investigate how the different educational contexts might influence the way we research and conceptualize project collaboration in different disciplines.

The past two decades have witnessed substantial growth and development of further education in Ireland at unprecedented rates since the economic downturn following the Celtic Tiger (1994–2007), which included substantial changes from the government to the grassroots level in how further education is funded, administered, and experienced on the ground level by students and teachers alike. The sector has seen a massive revitalization in the last 24 months, with the establishment of the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation, and Science (DFHERIS) in 2020 and the release of the National Further Education and Training (FET) strategy (Government of Ireland, 2020).While the strategy acknowledges the sector as being "at the heart of communities" across Ireland and recognises the "critical" (Government of Ireland, 2020, p. 4) role it will play in supporting and developing the Irish economy in post-Covid times, the fact remains that there is a clear dearth of high-quality research in the FE sector in Ireland. Indeed, McGuinness and colleagues (2014, p. 6) have acknowledged that there currently exists a "lack of appropriate data or a developed academic literature on Irish FET." This is particularly true in relation to research with teachers and practitioners in the field. This lack of research forms the rationale for the present study, which is a joint project between the Marino Institute and the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG).

The overarching research question is:

How do student-teachers in the further education sector conceptualise and develop their professional teaching identity?

This project's objective is to gain a more in-depth comprehension of the motivations, experiences, and points of view of ITE entrants and student teachers who are preparing for careers in the further education industry. In particular, the project will investigate the factors that influenced these individuals' choice to work in the field of higher education teaching and will look into the reasons why these people decided to pursue teaching as a profession in the first place. In addition, the nature and quality of the interactions that student-teachers have with students and staff during their teaching placements or in their respective FE centers will be investigated as part of this project. In the context of the Further Education sector, this examination will allow the project to investigate how these individuals conceptualize their professional identity as "teachers." In addition to this, the project will investigate the factors that play a role in the formation of their teaching identity as well as their future plans for continuing education and professional development.

We propose a case-study methodology situated at the Marino Institute of Education (MIE) and the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). All students enrolled at the respective higher education institutions will be invited to participate in this study. Participants will be asked to complete 1 semi-structured interview of approximately 45 to 60 minutes in length and 1 short demographic online questionnaire, which should take no more than 5 minutes to complete.

The semi-structured interview will explore topical areas such as: motivations for pursuing a teaching career in the Further Education sector, experiences on educational placements, conceptualisation of what it means to be a teacher in the Further Education sector, the factors that shape their "teaching" identity, and plans for future professional development. All interviews will be conducted and recorded using Zoom to ensure accurate transcription and data collection for both participants and researchers.