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Abstract
- INTRODUCTION:
- This paper focuses on renewal of expertise under changing circumstances. Job transitions of nine technical professionals were studied in an international data-communications company. Participants had heterogeneous background, and at least three years experience in the company. Hermeneutical insights and empirical analysis were used to demonstrate narrative reconstruction of expertise, and to argue that people in transition interpret their expertise based on their prior experience and dominant discourse. This study has both practical and theoretical value. Through comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon it offers a mirror to people who want to reflect their own experiences, or to gain new knowledge on workplace learning. Moreover, it reinforces the relevance of narrative methods in educational research. This paper is a continuation for a paper presented in the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting 2004 (April 16, 2004), "Does role transition at work trigger transformation in the personal construction of expertise?"
- INTERPRETATIVE FRAMEWORK:
- I use interpretive and hermeneutic approach that does not lead to prediction or control, but to enlargement of understanding of human experience (Polkinghorne, 1988). The objectively understood "truth" of a social phenomenon is not waiting for researchers anywhere; meaning is negotiated mutually in the act of interpretation, rather than simply discovered (Swandth, 2000). Moreover, I assume that people make sense of their experiences narratively - also in professional settings. Such personal accounts do not mirror the world, but are creatively authored, rhetorical, replete with assumptions, and thus interpretative (Riessman, 1993). As a consequence, I argue that also expertise is narratively constructed, and therefore, the renewal of expertise requires not only new skills and knowledge, but also an alternative narrative that truly works and enables engagement with the work in a new way.
- DATA GATHERING AND ANALYSIS:
I collected data during eight months per participant in year 2002 via two discursive interviews and five group discussion sessions supported by participants own notes. The interaction between participants (interviewee and interviewer) was represented in detail; speech and non-lexical responses, pauses etc. were included in transcriptions.
Analysis was build on work produced by scholars interested in how the form and content of narratives shed light on the experiences of individuals (see Mishler 1986; Bell 1988; Riessman 1991, 1993). The analytical process contained several independent phases that were interconnected in the final phase of the study. One of them was to analyze storylines of career narratives, and another was to analyze how linked stories within an account revealed personal change. Eventually, individual stories were reflected upon cultural discourse on expertise.
- CONCLUSIONS:
- This paper concludes renewal of expertise in hermeneutical terms of 'language' and 'translation'. Language is a medium of understanding: it expresses the meaning of a subject matter from a particular perspective (Gadamer, 1989). Therefore, translation of a meaning from one language to another demonstrates what interpretation is all about - it is a fusion of perspectives, rather than rational reflection on assumptions and adoption of a more advanced perspective. Renewal of expertise means to gain new knowledge, confidence, and power to influence again: Expertise is translated, i.e. interpreted anew in new circumstances. Renewal happens when some new and relevant thing of a same kind replaces prior expertise, and yet it happens within the viewpoint of a prior expertise.