Monika Bærøe Nerland

• Keskinen, Katri A.; Juntunen, Marja-Leena & Nerland, Monika (2024). Expanding professionalism in popular music voice teaching: A framework synthesis. Research Studies in Music Education. ISSN 1321-103X. doi: 10.1177/1321103X231223414. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This framework synthesis investigates how notions related to expanding professionalism have manifested in recently published literature on popular music voice teaching. The reviewed literature was selected from a systematic mapping review conducted previously by the first two authors. The scope for the publication years was 2014 to 2020, and the included literature incorporated 64 titles of peer-reviewed articles, academic book and handbook chapters, and doctoral dissertations. The initial framework considered scholarship on expanding professionalism, and the directive themes for coding included forms of expertise and knowledge building, social and societal responsibility, and agency related to change. The data were examined from individual, societal, and institutional perspectives. The findings showed that notions related to expanding professionalism are used as means of legitimizing the academically emerging field. However, the professional development work results mostly from the agency of individual practitioners. Thus, support from higher music education institutes and professional organizations is needed to enable the professional sustainability of such practices and further the societal relevance of these institutional actors. This study contributes to the recent scholarship on expanding professionalism in music and music education. The emergent framework resulting from this synthesis can inform further empirical studies.

• Brandenberger, Isabel Alexandra; Hasu, Mervi & Nerland, Monika (2023). Integrating technology with work practices in primary care: Challenges to sustainable organizing "from within". Learning Organization. ISSN 0969-6474. doi: 10.1108/TLO-01-2023-0009. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose This paper aims to generate a better understanding of how challenges and opportunities for sustainable change during digitalization relate to the organizing work of change agents mandated to facilitate technology adoption from within local work organizations. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the work of welfare technology coordinators, health-care professionals who are mandated to facilitate the use of technologies in home-based services in a Norwegian city. Data comprise ethnographic observations of meetings and work practices, interviews and documents collected over one year. A practice-based approach was applied to analyze how the welfare technology coordinators go about integrating technologies with the work practices, and the forms of negotiations this work implies in their work community. Findings The analysis identified four sets of practices in the coordinators’ work: exploring and integrating new technologies into work practices, legitimizing aims and values, formalizing routines and responsibilities and critically considering existing and envisioned service practices. Through these practices, emerging problems and disconnections in the service organization were attended to in a continuous manner. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature by examining the work of internal change agents mandated to facilitate multiple and simultaneous technology adoption and demonstrates the importance of recognizing the continuous efforts and negotiations of these agents as significant to sustainable organizing.

• Nerland, Monika; Hasu, Mervi & Grisot, Miria (2023). Discourses of Digitalisation and the Positioning of Workers in Primary Care: A Norwegian Case Study. Social Inclusion. 11(4), p. 172–183. doi: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7121. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Primary health services are subjected to intensified digitalisation to transform care provision. Various smart and assistive technologies are introduced to support the growing elderly population and enhance the opportunities for independent living among patients in need of continuous care. Research has shown how such digitalisation processes evolve at the intersection of different and often competing discourses, oriented towards service efficiency, cost containment, technological innovation, client‐centred care, and digital competence development. Often, increased technology use is presented as a solution to pressing problems. However, how discourses are negotiated in work contexts and their mechanisms of social inclusion/exclusion in evolving work practices have received less attention. This article examines how care workers in the primary health sector are discursively positioned when care technologies are introduced in the services. We employ a perspective on discourses and subject positions in analysing strategic documents and interviews with care workers in a large Norwegian city. We show how managerial discourses that focus narrowly on the implementation and mastery of single technologies provide limited spaces for workers to exert influence on their work situations, while discourses that emphasise professional knowledge or broader technological and organisational aspects provide a variety of resources for workers’ agency. The way care workers adopt and negotiate subject positions varies based on their tasks and responsibilities in the organisation. We discuss the need to move beyond “solutionism” in efforts to digitalise care work in order to provide inclusive spaces supporting the contributions of various worker groups.

• Sadorge, Christopher; Nerland, Monika & Mäkitalo, Åsa (2023). Conditioning the work of colleagues: health professionals’ explorative work in technology design. Vocations and Learning. ISSN 1874-785X. doi: 10.1007/s12186-023-09331-0. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract Professional learning at work is related to the opportunities to participate in explorative and constructive practices. Co-designing tools and technologies to support work offers such opportunities, which need to be better understood in the field of professional and vocational learning. As digitalisation initiatives become more ambitious and aim at wider service reorganisation, more professionals from nontechnical domains become involved in the work of designing technologies and developing routines for their practice. This study explores how health professionals participate in the design of a technology for the registration and sharing of patient information across healthcare units in a Norwegian city. Over a year, we observed the design meetings with a team of health professionals and IT developers. The health professionals were mandated this task as part of their regular work to ensure that the way of categorising and displaying patient information would serve the services’ needs. The interactions in the design meetings were analysed to examine how categories of patient information were explored and negotiated as objects of design. Our findings show how the team needed to test candidate categories for various contexts of use. This implied both negotiation of future service routines and efforts to reconfigure tasks and responsibilities in multiple service contexts. This work brings extended responsibilities and opportunities for learning to health professionals. We discuss how their decisions are consequential beyond their own workplace as the information system and its categories condition the work of colleagues in the wider service chain.

• Sadorge, Christopher; Nerland, Monika & Grisot, Miria (2023). The Generative Role of Objects in Infrastructure Design: A Case of Designing a System for Continuity of Care. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). ISSN 0925-9724. doi: 10.1007/s10606-023-09485-4. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract This study explores the generative role of objects in design work. While the CSCW literature includes a range of contributions on infrastructure design and ways of accounting for diverse existing systems, practices and perspectives in design, the focus has typically been on the point of use, rather than the earlier stages of design processes. However, as more worker groups become involved in design there is a need to understand the microdynamics of collaborative design in this phase and the interplay between problem framing and exploration. We examined how the design of an information system in the health sector evolved through the instantiation and exploration of intermediary objects that become generative in the design process. The data comprised observations over 2 years from design meetings with a team of health professionals and software developers mandated to develop a system for the registration and sharing of patient information across primary care units. The analysis showed how intermediary objects formed focal points from which infrastructure design problems were framed and collectively explored. These processes required considerable negotiation and exploration within and between the interdependencies that become relevant in the design process. We identified how intermediary objects take different representational forms and become generative in two ways: By producing new or transformed objects, and by revealing layers of complexity inherent in the design problem. We discussed implications of the analysis as regards aspects of the infrastructure design that can be handled in the design team versus aspects that should be delegated to local adaptation.

• Langemeyer, Ines & Nerland, Monika (2022). Undergraduate Research: Sociocultural Perspectives. In Mieg, Harald A.; Ambos, Elizabeth; Brew, Angela; Galli, Dominique & Lehmann, Judith (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781108835923. p. 59–71. Full text in Research Archive
• Jensen, Karen; Nerland, Monika Bærøe & Tronsmo, Eli (2022). Changing Cultural Conditions for Knowledge Sharing in the Teaching Profession: A Theoretical Reinterpretation of Findings Across Three Research Projects. Professions and Professionalism. 11(3), p. 1–20. doi: 10.7577/pp.4267. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  How professionalism relates to developments in society has been widely discussed, and concepts such as “hybrid” and “connective” professionalism have been proposed to account for the way professionals interact with a range of actors and organisations beyond the professional realm. However, the critical role of knowledge-sharing practices for developing and maintaining professionalism has attracted less attention. Such practices have been conditioned by wider cultural dynamics, thus subjected to changes over time. In this paper, we present a theoretical reinterpretation of findings from three projects targeting knowledge-sharing practices in the Norwegian teaching profession over 14 years. We employ Knorr Cetina’s theory of epistemic cultures as nourished by the wider knowledge culture in society to analyse how changes in knowledge-sharing practices relate to cultural conditions. The paper contributes to current debates about professionalism by highlighting how connectivity and legitimacy depend on productive knowledge relations within and beyond professional boundaries.

• Nerland, Monika (2022). Organisational learning in complex epistemic environments: reflections from studies of professional work in Norway. Learning Organization. ISSN 0969-6474. doi: 10.1108/TLO-02-2022-0025. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose The aim of this invited paper is to explore how more complex epistemic environments generate opportunities and challenges for organizational learning in professional realms. Based on these explorations, a second aim is to discuss whether there are specific conditions in Nordic working life that facilitates or restricts such learning opportunities. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses conditions for organizational learning in terms of changing knowledge practices and relations. Examples from studies of knowledge work in the Norwegian education and health sectors are provided to illustrate how professionals become involved in epistemic practices as part of their work and how these practices are changing in relation to evolving knowledge cultures. Findings The paper conceptualises and discusses how knowledge practices are changing in relation to specific and increasingly complex epistemic environments. It is argued that features such as low power distance, high levels of higher education participation, well-developed digital infrastructures and a general trust in professionals are conducive to learning. At the same time, taking advantage of learning opportunities are increasingly depending on individuals’ agency and capacities to cope with new demands. Originality/value To better account for the complexity of epistemic environments, organisational learning can be seen as a matter of connecting epistemic practices in the local work organisation to wider knowledge circuits.

• Nerland, Monika & Hasu, Mervi (2020). Challenging the belief in simple solutions: The need for epistemic practices in professional work. Medical Education. ISSN 0308-0110. doi: 10.1111/medu.14294. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Context As a contribution to the State of the Science issue on ‘The problem with solutions’, this paper discusses how technology‐mediated and assumedly simple and straightforward solutions to professional problems in fact require extensive work from professionals in order that generalised tools and procedures can be made sense of, adapted and employed in local practice. Theoretical perspective The authors introduce a perspective on epistemic practices in professional work and learning in order to conceptualise and discuss the diversity of the knowledge‐related actions required to perform professional services. They discuss how the growing numbers and diversity of knowledge‐generating actors who aspire to inform professional practice create ‘multi‐charged’ work settings, imbued with multiple objectives and purposes. This development presents new epistemic challenges to professionals, which require extended capacities for knowledge work. Summary The authors give examples from empirical studies conducted in Nordic health care settings, which relate to nurses’ engagement with repositories of clinical procedures and to the development of new medical technologies for clinical use. They show how work performance in both cases depends on a range of epistemic practices (ie, collective ways of exploring, assessing, critically examining and justifying knowledge claims), which are necessary if the general tools and technologies are to be put to work in the local environment. This forms a core dynamic in practitioners’ work‐based learning as it moves between what is known and what remains to be explored or improved. Conclusions The paper argues that the widespread belief in simple or versatile solutions is challenged by research that reveals the diversity of the knowledge practices needed to perform professional services. The paper suggests that professional communities might pay more attention to epistemic practices as means to handle complexity. It raises intriguing questions and discusses implications for medical education.

• Nerland, Monika (2020). Exploring student participation challenges in student-centred learning environments. In Elken, Mari; Maassen, Peter; Nerland, Monika; Prøitz, Tine Sophie; Stensaker, Bjørn & Vabø, Agnete (Ed.), Quality Work in Higher Education. Organisational and Pedagogical Dimensions. Springer. ISSN 9783030417567. p. 97–113. Full text in Research Archive
• Nordkvelle, Yngve Troye; Stalheim, Odd Rune; Fossland, Trine; Lange, Thomas de; Wittek, Anne Line & Nerland, Monika Bærøe (2020). Praksisnær undervisning med simulering og rollespill, Praksisnær undervisning – i praksis og teori. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202632588. p. 99–119. doi: 10.23865/noasp.94.ch6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Simulation in education involves creating situations that are similar to events, rituals and routines performed in the workplace – or in therapy, consultation, conflicts or similar situations. One recreates as many conditions as are necessary for the students to ‘live’ within what one imitates. Teachers instruct students and run the procedures as if they were ‘reality’. Some simulations, such as in nursing education, require expensive equipment and sophisticated use of ICT. Others can be set up as role-playing games with what one has at their disposal in terms of facilities. The article compares three cases of simulation that were closely examined in connection with a research project. The purpose was to find out if the students experienced this as good quality. The students’ ability to immerse themselves in the situation is of great importance for the benefit of the simulation. Most students find that the situations closely resemble real life and keep them engaged and alert. Teaching that explicitly tries to resemble reality is perceived as very educational.

• Hopwood, Nick & Nerland, Monika (2019). Epistemic Practices in Professional-Client Partnership Work. Vocations and Learning. ISSN 1874-785X. 12(2), p. 319–339. doi: 10.1007/s12186-018-9214-2. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Relational aspects of professional practice demand increasing attention in research on work and learning. However, little is known about how knowledge is enacted in practices where different people work together. Working in partnership with clients surfaces a number of epistemic demands, responses to which are poorly understood. This paper analyses two cases of nurses working with parents in support services for families with young children. The questions asked are: What epistemic practices are enacted when professionals work in partnership with clients? How do they generate distinct modes of partnership work? Findings show how professionals’ and clients’ knowledge is mobilised and made actionable through practices of diagnostic reasoning, recontextualising, testing and contesting knowledge claims. A distinction is presented between partnership that unfolds as strengthening the client from a professional epistemic perspective, and that which validates and augments the client’s own epistemic contribution. This reveals how knowledge is made to matter and becomes a basis for action in the course of working with others, and informs a new analytical distillation highlighting key epistemic aspects of professional-client partnership.

• Nerland, Monika (2019). Beyond policy: Conceptualising student-centred learning environments in higher (music) education. In Gies, Stefan & Sætre, Jon Helge (Ed.), Becoming musicians: Student involvement and teacher collaboration in higher music education. Norges musikkhøgskole. ISSN 9788278532737. p. 53–66. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-41757-4_6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract - While student-centred learning environments are placed high on the policy agenda for how educational practices can be developed, it is less clear what this term actually means and what implications it may have for teaching and learning. This article discusses how student-centred learning environments in higher education can be interpreted and conceptualized from an educational sciences perspective, in which the term is used to characterize learning environments that aim at placing students at the centre of the activities and facilitating their active participation and engagement with disciplinary and/ or professional knowledge. The article also provides examples from recent research on how such environments are organised and experienced by teachers and students in different Norwegian higher education contexts. The examples are mainly taken from studies of common educational practices in the general field of higher education, such as practices employing problem-based, project- based and case-based learning. Reflections on what these insights might mean for the specific field of music performance education are included on the way, and discussed in relation to teacher collaboration as a means of supporting student engagement and learning in higher music education. The article builds on a keynote presentation given at the AEC-CEMPE conference Becoming Musicians—Student Involvement and Teacher Collaboration in Higher Music Education in Oslo in October 2018.

• Lina, Markauskaite; Muukkonen, Hanni; Damsa, Crina I.; Reimann, Peter; Shaffer, David & Thompson, Kate [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2019). Theories and Methods for Researching Interdisciplinary Learning, A Wide Lens: Combining Embodied, Enactive, Extended, and Embedded Learning in Collaborative Settings. 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) 2019, Volume 2.. International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). ISSN 9781732467248. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Interdisciplinary learning (IDL) has become widespread in schools, universities, workplaces and diverse R&D settings. However, it is a highly challenging, fragmented and underexplored domain. Research that examined it is dispersed across multiple theoretical and methodological traditions, and targets diverse research problems, yet generating little impact on practice. This workshop aims to create a more holistic understanding of this research field by enabling CSCL researchers to share their theoretical and methodological tools and practices. It further aims at outlining an agenda for synthesizing this work into an integrated theoretical and methodological toolkit that would allow researchers, designers and other practitioners in the IDL field to conceptualize their studies and design IDL environments more holistically and robustly. The workshop is co-organized by an international team of researchers with expertise in studying various aspects of interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge co-creation and learning, and who operate within diverse research traditions. Participants will be invited through an open call, highlighting the need for contributions of conceptual, methodological and empirical nature.

• Esterhazy, Rachelle; Nerland, Monika & Damsa, Crina I. (2019). Designing for productive feedback: an analysis of two undergraduate courses in biology and engineering. Teaching in Higher Education. ISSN 1356-2517. doi: 10.1080/13562517.2019.1686699. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In the wake of a growing emphasis on students taking a more central role in shaping their own learning, it has become increasingly important that course designs cater for productive feedback. This study explores how feedback opportunities were incorporated into two course designs that in different ways aimed at engaging students actively in knowledge construction, and what might have contributed to making feedback in those contexts productive. A thematic analysis of course documents and interviews with teachers and students reveals that both courses included productive feedback opportunities. These were generated by arranging task and responsibilities in such ways that students could make use of feedback in their immediate work and their future learning. Our findings suggest that planning for productive feedback entails more than generating good feedback comments. Instead, teachers should view feedback as integral to their course designs and consider the practices of their disciplines during the planning process.

• Nerland, Monika & Damsa, Crina I. (2019). VET as Lifelong Learning: Engagement With Distributed Knowledge in Software Engineering. In Guile, David & Unwin, Lorna (Ed.), The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training. Wiley-Blackwell. ISSN 9781119098591. p. 395–414. doi: 10.1002/9781119098713.ch20. Full text in Research Archive
• Damsa, Crina I.; Nerland, Monika & Andreadakis, Zacharias (2019). An ecological perspective on learner‐constructed learning spaces. British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET). ISSN 0007-1013. 50(5), p. 2075–2089. doi: 10.1111/bjet.12855. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper argues for the need to develop a relational, emergent and plural understanding of learning spaces. We take an ecological perspective on learning, which allows us to conceptualize learning spaces as (co‐)constructed by learners; emerging through learners' practices, interactions and activities; and facilitated by pedagogical arrangements. In the co‐construction of spaces for learning, tapping into various ecologies of resources—whether intellectual, relational or digital material—becomes an organic, iterative, agentic endeavour for learners. This paper proposes a set of principles to synthesize this conceptualization and facilitates an understanding of such emergent learning spaces. An empirical illustration extracted from a collaborative student project in software engineering education contributes to grounding the conceptual argument and provides a clarifying example. Ultimately, this contribution suggests that in order to support the emergence of learning spaces that are resource‐rich and conducive to learning, educational contexts and pedagogical arrangements must provide both the framing conditions and also the flexibility and permeability required to access the wider ecologies of resources made available through digital technologies.

• Nordkvelle, Yngve Troye; Stalheim, Odd Rune; Fossland, Trine; Lange, Thomas de; Wittek, Anne Line & Nerland, Monika (2019). Simulating: Bridging the Gap Between Practice and Theory in Higher Professional Education. In Trimmer, Karen; Newman, Tara & Padró, Fernando (Ed.), Ensuring Quality in Professional Education Volume I. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 9783030010959. p. 53–72. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-01096-6_3. Full text in Research Archive
• Ludvigsen, Sten Runar & Nerland, Monika (2018). Learning at work: Social practices and units of analysis. In Fischer, Frank; Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E.; Goldman, Susan R. & Reimann, Peter (Ed.), International Handbook of the Learning Sciences. Routledge. ISSN 9781138670594. p. 147–156. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2018). Knowledge practices and relations in professional education. Studies in Continuing Education. ISSN 0158-037X. 40(3), p. 242–256. doi: 10.1080/0158037X.2018.1447919. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The dynamics of knowledge in society have transformed the conditions of professional work and learning. Professional expertise has become increasingly specialised, and practitioners are challenged to keep up with rapid developments in their fields. At the same time, the complexity of professional work requires the integration of different forms of knowledge and knowing. Against this background, the knowledge settings in which learners engage and the practices and resources these offer are of vital importance. This article addresses professional education as embedded in profession-specific ‘machineries of knowledge construction’, that is, the set of practices and arrangements through which knowledge and ways of knowing in a profession are generated. It is argued that such machineries span settings in education and work. Examples from research in three professional programmes are used to discuss how students are introduced to epistemic practices and resources in selected knowledge settings. Analytical attention is given to the dynamic interplay between people, practices, knowledge resources and educational arrangements as well as to how connections to work and the epistemic machinery are made. Taking these linkages into account is important for our understanding of what learning entails in different areas of expertise and how this may change over time. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

• Lange, Thomas de & Nerland, Monika (2018). Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn: Exploring Microteaching as a Site for Knowledge Integration in Teacher Education. In Maassen, Peter; Nerland, Monika & Yates, Lyn (Ed.), Reconfiguring Knowledge in Higher Education. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783319728315. p. 169–185. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-72832-2_10. Full text in Research Archive
• Maassen, Peter; Nerland, Monika & Yates, Lyn (2018). Reconfiguring knowledge: Emerging themes and research avenues. In Maassen, Peter; Nerland, Monika & Yates, Lyn (Ed.), Reconfiguring Knowledge in Higher Education. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783319728315. p. 187–202. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-72832-2_11. Full text in Research Archive
• Tronsmo, Eli & Nerland, Monika (2018). Local curriculum development as object construction: A sociomaterial analysis. Teaching and Teacher Education : An International Journal of Research and Studies. ISSN 0742-051X. 72, p. 33–43. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2018.02.008. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper examines teachers' local curriculum development by analyzing such development as a process of object construction. One team of lower secondary school teachers, mandated to develop a subject curriculum for their school, was followed closely over a year through an ethnographic approach. Data from six team meetings were analyzed to trace how the curriculum was developed through a series of object instantiations that also worked on the construction process. This process required various forms of epistemic engagement, which should be acknowledged in current discussions of teachers’ work and their extended professional responsibilities.

• Gherardi, Silvia; Jensen, Karen & Nerland, Monika (2017). Shadow organizing: a metaphor to explore organizing as intra-relating. Qualitative research in organization and management. ISSN 1746-5648. 12(1), p. 1–17. doi: 10.1108/QROM-06-2016-1385. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conceive “organizing” as an indeterminate process taking place in the interstices of intra-acting elements, beyond visible/rational/intentional organizing. The term intra-activity refers to relationships between multiple elements (human and more-than-human) that are understood not to have clear or distinct boundaries. The paper aims at reframing organizing, as the effect of multiple intra-acting elements, by introducing the metaphor of shadow organizing. It offers examples as diverse as knowledge spillover, evidence-based medicine and improvisation, and the mafia’s organizational rules. Design/methodology/approach: The frame of reference is metaphorical theorization, based on the metaphor of shadow organizing, and is explored through three metonymies: the forest and its sheltered spaces in penumbra; the shadow as a grey zone between canonical and non-canonical practices; and secret societies, hidden in the shadow. The shadow is the symbol of what is “betwixt and between.” Findings: Shadow organizing focuses on the way that situated elements (people, technologies, knowledge, infrastructures, society) intra-relate and acquire agency. Whilst organizing as the effect of intentional coordination, planning, and strategizing represents a well-established theorization, shadow organizing sheds light on what happen in the interstices of intentional and structured processes. The paper identifies the dimensions of shadow organizing as performativity, liminality, and secrecy. Originality/value: The passage from elements in interaction to intra-acting relations that form elements is a challenge both for theory and methodology. To face this challenge, metaphorical thinking proves useful since it enhances scholars’ imaginations and emotional participation.

• Enqvist-Jensen, Cecilie; Nerland, Monika & Rasmussen, Ingvill (2017). Maintaining doubt to keep problems open for exploration: An analysis of law students' collaborative work with case assignments. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction. ISSN 2210-6561. 13, p. 38–49. doi: 10.1016/j.lcsi.2017.02.001. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article examines how second-year law students act and interact to maintain legal doubt in solving case assignments in groups. Professional norms of inquiry within the legal domain include keeping an issue open for exploration and ensuring that all potentially relevant aspects of a case are considered before reaching a conclusion, as well as making the basis for such conclusions transparent. However, we do not know much about how students appropriate this core aspect of legal problem-solving. We analysed videotaped discussions in two student groups as they worked with cases in international law. The findings bring to the fore how (1) the students' interactions; (2) legal texts; and (3) the use of professional procedures and principles for investigation constituted an exploratory dynamic through which doubt was collectively produced and maintained in the group work. The analysis shows that in the process of getting deeper into aspects of the case at hand, problems where opened up and kept open by the students'/construction of a number of intermediate questions. The relevance of such questions was tested in the group work, but also guided by texts and procedures that are linked in systematic ways. The article argues for the value of group work to support students in learning to take part in core knowledge practices that characterize legal problem-solving.

• Nerland, Monika & Hermansen, Hege Yvonne (2017). Sosiomaterielle perspektiver på profesjonskvalifisering: Kunnskapsressursenes betydning. In Mausethagen, Sølvi & Smeby, Jens-Christian (Ed.), Kvalifisering til profesjonell yrkesutøvelse. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 9788215026459. p. 167–179. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Dagens profesjonsutøvere er omgitt av et mangfold av kunnskapsressurser. Dette skyldes blant annet økt kunnskapsproduksjon og en rask teknologisk utvikling. Disse kunnskapsressursene former det daglige arbeidet, men er også viktige i videreutvikling og kvalitetssikring av profesjonsutøvelsen. I dette kapitlet presenterer vi analytiske perspektiver som belys er rollen ulike kunnskapsressurser spiller i profesjonskvalifisering. Vi viser også hvordan samspillet mellom profesjonsutøvere og kunnskapsressurser kan påvirke muligheter for læring og kunnskapsutvikling. Dette kapitlet er en del av antologien "Kvalifisering til profesjonell yrkesutøvelse". © 2017 Universitetsforlaget

• Damsa, Crina I.; Nerland, Monika & Jensen, Karen (2017). Enrolment of first-year students in knowledge domains: Unpacking transformative practices in three introductory courses. In Kyndt, Eva; Donche, Vincent; Trigwell, Keith & Lindblom-Ylänne, Sari (Ed.), Higher Education Transitions: Theory and Research. Routledge. ISSN 9781138670884. doi: 10.4324/9781315617367-20. Full text in Research Archive
• Damsa, Crina I. & Nerland, Monika (2016). Student Learning Through Participation in Inquiry Activities: Two Case Studies in Teacher and Computer Engineering Education. Vocations and Learning. ISSN 1874-785X. p. 1–20. doi: 10.1007/s12186-016-9152-9. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2016). Learning to Master Profession-Specific Knowledge Practices: A Prerequisite for the Deliberate Practitioner? In Trede, Franziska & McEwen, Celina (Ed.), Educating the Deliberate Professional. Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. ISSN 9783319329567. p. 127–139. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-32958-1_9. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika & Karseth, Berit (2015). The knowledge work of professional associations: approaches to standardisation and forms of legitimisation. Journal of Education and Work. ISSN 1363-9080. 28(1), p. 1–23. doi: 10.1080/13639080.2013.802833. Full text in Research Archive
• Jensen, Karen & Nerland, Monika (2015). Knowledge dynamics in higher education: Examples from law schools in Norway and their shadow arrangements. In Langemeyer, Ines; Fischer, Martin & Pfadenhauer, Michaela (Ed.), Epistemic and learning cultures – wohin sich Universitäten entwickeln. Verlagsgruppe Beltz. ISSN 9783779932772. p. 46–60. Full text in Research Archive
• Jensen, Karen; Nerland, Monika & Enqvist-Jensen, Cecilie (2015). Enrolment of newcomers in expert cultures: an analysis of epistemic practices in a legal education introductory course. Higher Education. ISSN 0018-1560. 70(5), p. 867–880. doi: 10.1007/s10734-015-9872-z. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika & Karseth, Berit (2014). Standardization of professional knowledge and practice: The regulatory role of professional associations in Norway. In Fenwick, Tara; Mangez, Eric & Ozga, Jenny (Ed.), World Yearbook of Education 2014: Governing Knowledge; Comparison, Knowledge-Based Technologies and Expertise in the Regulation of Education. Routledge. ISSN 9780415828734. Full text in Research Archive
• Hermansen, Hege & Nerland, Monika (2014). Betydningen av læreres kunnskapsarbeid for utvikling av kollektiv praksis. In Elstad, Eyvind & Helstad, Kristin (Ed.), Profesjonsutvikling i skolen. Universitetsforlaget. ISSN 9788215023557. p. 224–240. Full text in Research Archive
• Hermansen, Hege Yvonne & Nerland, Monika (2014). Reworking practice through an AfL project: an analysis of teachers’ collaborative engagement with new assessment guidelines. British Educational Research Journal (BERJ). ISSN 0141-1926. 40(1), p. 187–206. doi: 10.1002/berj.3037. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika & Jensen, Karen (2014). Learning through epistemic practices in professional work. Examples from nursing and engineering. In Fenwick, Tara & Nerland, Monika (Ed.), Reconceptualising Professional Learning. Sociomaterial knowledges, practices and responsibilities. Routledge. ISSN 9780415815789. p. 25–37. Full text in Research Archive
• Ludvigsen, Sten Runar & Nerland, Monika (2014). Knowledge Sharing in Professions: Working Creatively with Standards in Local Settings. In Sannino, Annalisa & Ellis, Vivian Thomas (Ed.), Learning and Collective Creativity. Activity-Theoretical and Sociocultural Studies. Routledge. ISSN 9780415657105. p. 116–131. Full text in Research Archive
• Afdal, Hilde Wågsås & Nerland, Monika (2014). Does Teacher Education Matter? An Analysis of Relations to Knowledge among Norwegian and Finnish Novice Teachers. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. ISSN 0031-3831. 58(3), p. 281–299. doi: 10.1080/00313831.2012.726274. Full text in Research Archive
• Damsa, Crina I. & Nerland, Monika (2014). Collaborative Knowledge Practices in Higher Education: A Comparative Analysis of Student Learning in Two Undergraduate Programs. In L.,, Kyza, E., O'Neill, D. K., Taba Polman, J. (Eds.), Learning and becoming in practice, Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). ISSN 9780990355014. Full text in Research Archive
• Damsa, Crina I.; Muukkonen, Hanni; Nerland, Monika; Lakkala, Minna; Toom, Auli & Kosonen, Kari [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2014). Enrollment of higher education students in professional knowledge and practices. In L.,, Kyza, E., O'Neill, D. K., Taba Polman, J. (Eds.), Learning and becoming in practice, Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). ISSN 9780990355014. p. 1283–1292. Full text in Research Archive

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• Elken, Mari; Maassen, Peter; Nerland, Monika; Prøitz, Tine Sophie; Stensaker, Bjørn & Vabø, Agnete (2020). Quality Work in Higher Education. Organisational and Pedagogical Dimensions. Springer. ISBN 9783030417567. 186 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Maassen, Peter; Nerland, Monika & Yates, Lyn (2018). Reconfiguring Knowledge in Higher Education. Springer Nature. ISBN 9783319728315. 208 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Fenwick, Tara; Nerland, Monika & Jensen, Karen (2014). Professional Learning in Changing Contexts. Routledge. ISBN 9780415716932. 163 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Fenwick, Tara & Nerland, Monika (2014). Reconceptualising Professional Learning. Sociomaterial knowledges, practices and responsibilities. Routledge. ISBN 9780415815789. 232 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Nerland, Monika (2026). Emerging Technologies, Education, and Reflections on Future Competencies. Full text in Research Archive
• Lunde, Ida Martinez & Nerland, Monika (2026). Making Novel Technology Work: Analysing Emerging Human–Technology Configurations in Primary Care. Full text in Research Archive
• Pettersen, Lene; Rudningen, Gudrun & Nerland, Monika (2026). Rethinking AI in the Workplace: Epistemic Challenges and Design Implications. Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. doi: 10.48340/ECSCW2026_088. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and related technologies are increasingly implemented in organizations worldwide to improve efficiency and accelerate employees’ and teams’ productivity. This exploratory and conceptual paper examines some unfortunate and unin-tended consequences for computer-supported cooperative work when AI systems for the workplace are designed in anthropomorphic ways. Our, perhaps provocative, argument is that emerging collaborative technologies in the workplace should be designed to appear less, rather than more, trustworthy. This is because AI systems (1) are characterized by an-thropomorphism, (2) employ rhetorical conversational strategies that persuade users through knowledge claims, and (3) inherently represent uncertainty, as these technologies possess wide-ranging capabilities and evolve rapidly. Together, these characteristics may increase the risk of unfortunate decisions by knowledge professionals. We conclude by em-phasizing that AI design for the workplace, the use of AI by knowledge professionals, and the epistemic power of workplace AI systems are important topics that the CSCW research com-munity should address and place more prominently on its research agenda.

• Nerland, Monika & Mäkitalo, Åsa (2025). Learning through metawork in digitalised healthcare: The case of monitoring patient falls. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika & Brandenberger, Isabel Alexandra (2025). Hva krever digitaliseringen av helsearbeidere? Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika; Hasu, Mervi; Grisot, Miria; Aanestad, Margunn; Mäkitalo, Åsa & Saari, Eveliina (2024). Which challenges do digitalisation processes present to healthcare workers? ​ ​Implications for professional expertise, identities and competencies from digital innovation initiatives. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Symposium comprising three presentations from the project CORPUS: 1) Shifting demands to professional expertise and opportunities for learning in everyday care work ​ (Monika Nerland & Åsa Mäkitalo);​ ​ 2) From care practitioners to back-office service integrators: frontline care workers’ identity formation in digital platform-based care management practice ​ (Mervi Hasu & Eveliina Saari);​ ​ 3) Infrastructural work: competencies required for health workers’ participation in technology design processes ​ (Margunn Aanestad & Miria Grisot). Comments from Davide Nicolini, University of Warwick and Claus Harald Jebsen, BI.

• Lunde, Ida Martinez; Nerland, Monika; Sadorge, Christopher & Grisot, Miria (2024). Implementing Electronic Health Records: Shifts and Obstacles in Machineries of Knowing. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika & Mäkitalo, Åsa (2024). Learning by stabilizing. Health care work in the multi-layeredness of digital transformation. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika; Brandenberger, Isabel Alexandra; Sadorge, Christopher; Dæhlen, Åsmund & Aanestad, Margunn (2024). Hva krever digitaliseringen av helsearbeidere og ledere? Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Digitaliseringen av helsetjenestene i kommunen endrer både jobben som skal gjøres og kompetansen som kreves. I denne formidlingskonferansen presenterte forskere i CORPUS-prosjektet resultater under to tematiske bolker: 1) Hva innebærer digitaliseringen for ansatte i tjenestene? 2) Hva er implikasjonene for ledelse av utviklingsprosjekter og endringer i arbeidsmiljøene? Resultatene ble kommentert og diskutert med forskere og representanter for aktuelle praksisfelt.

• Sadorge, Christopher & Nerland, Monika (2023). Professional Learning in Design Work: Developing Patient Information Systems through Object Construction. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika; Hasu, Mervi & Grisot, Miria (2023). Discourses of Digitalisation and the Positioning of Workers in Primary Care: A Norwegian Case. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The primary health services are subjected to intensified digitalisation with the aim of transforming care provision. Various smart and assistive technologies are introduced to handle the growing elderly population and enhance the opportunities for independent living among patients in need of continuous care. Research has shown how such digitalisation processes evolve in the intersection of different and often competing discourses, oriented towards phenomena such as service efficiency, cost containment, technological innovation, client-centred care and digital competence development. Often, increased technology use is presented as solutions to pressing problems. However, the way in which discourses are negotiated in work contexts and their mechanisms of inclusion/exclusion have received less attention. This article examines how care workers in the primary health sector are discursively positioned when care technologies are introduced in the services. We employ a perspective on discourses and subject positions in analysing strategic documents and interviews with care workers in a larger Norwegian city. We show how managerial discourses that focus narrowly on the implementation and mastery of individual technologies provide limited spaces for workers to exert influence on their work situations, while discourses that emphasise professional knowledge or broader technological and organisational relations provide a variety of resources for workers’ agency. The way care workers adopt and negotiate subject positions varies with their tasks and responsibilities in the organisation. We discuss the need to move beyond ‘solutionism’ in efforts to digitalise care work in order to provide inclusive spaces supporting the contributions of various worker groups.

• Nerland, Monika; Aanestad, Margunn; Hasu, Mervi; Grisot, Miria & Sundt-Ohlsen, Harald (2023). Nye kompetansebehov i helsesektorens digitaliseringsprosesser. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Sesjon på EHiN-konferansen 2023: Hvilke kompetansebehov oppstår lokalt når helsetjenestene digitaliseres og teknologibruken intensiveres? Hva betyr dette for organisasjonene og for ansatte? Denne sesjonen presenterer nyere forskning om temaet, deriblant funn fra et pågående prosjekt der forskere fra UiO samarbeider med Oslo kommune. Sesjonen inkluderer en innledning, to foredrag basert på forskning i prosjektet CORPUS, og en kommentar fra samarbeidspartner i Oslo kommune.

• Nerland, Monika; Brandenberger, Isabel Alexandra & Hasu, Mervi (2023). Relational meta-work emerging during technology integration in primary care. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2023). Exploring professional knowing and learning in local and extended contexts of practice. Full text in Research Archive
• Brandenberger, Isabel Alexandra; Hasu, Mervi & Nerland, Monika (2022). Reorganising practices in digitalising primary health services: The concerns of welfare technology coordinators. Full text in Research Archive
• Hasu, Mervi; Nerland, Monika & Brandenberger, Isabel Alexandra (2022). Hvordan endrer velferdsteknologi arbeid og kompetanse i tjenestene? Presentasjon av foreløpige forskningsresultater og interaktiv seminar. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Forskningsprosjektet CORPUS utvikler kunnskap om kompetansebehov og læring i helsesektoren ved å gjennomføre nærstudier av hvordan digitalisering fører til endringer i arbeidsorganisering og oppgavefordeling, hvilke kompetanser som trengs for å takle disse utfordringene, og hvilke læringsmuligheter som tilbys i det daglige arbeidet. Innføring og bruk av velferdsteknologi i Oslo kommune har vært et hovedområde for forskningen, med bydel N.N. som en sentral samarbeidspartner. CORPUS-prosjektet er nå midtveis i sin finansieringsperiode, og vi avslutter datainnsamlingen denne våren. Vi vil presentere de foreløpige observasjonene og funnene om (1) hvordan arbeidet i tjenestene endres med implementering og bruk av velferdsteknologi, og (2) hva endringene betyr for organisering av arbeidet, arbeidsroller og kompetansekrav. I tillegg vil vi gjerne (3) høre dine synspunkter og kommentarer, og diskutere hvilke funn som er mest relevante å fokusere mer på i den gjenværende prosjektperioden.

• Sadorge, Christopher; Nerland, Monika & Mäkitalo, Åsa (2022). New challenges for health professionals. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2022). Researching professional learning in complex environments: Opportunities and challenges from a qualitative research perspective. In Goller, Michael; Paloniemi, Susanna; Kyndt, Eva & Damsa, Crina I. (Ed.), Methods for researching professional learning and development: Challenges, applications, and empirical illustrations. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783031085178. p. 603–618. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-08518-5_27. Full text in Research Archive
• Øvrelid, Egil; Bygstad, Bendik; Breivik, Jarle; Nerland, Monika Bærøe; Westbye, Hilde & Kjekshus, Lars Erik [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2021). Hybridundervisning: Nødvendig nyskapning eller digitalisering på ville veier? Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Begrepet hybridundervising har fått en sentral rolle i diskusjonen om digitalisering av høyere utdanning, spesielt under den pågående pandemien. Hybridundervising kan i videste forstand beskrives som en blanding av ulike undervisningsformer, men kan også tolkes mer spesifikt. Det vil si som undervisningsaktiviteter hvor noen studenter og lærere deltar digitalt, mens andre er fysisk tilstede. Denne utviklingen byr på store teknologiske, pedagogiske, organisatoriske og økonomiske utfordringer. I den videre utviklingen av høyere utdanning vil hybridundervisning være et sentralt tema, hvor digitaliseringsskeptikere og digitaliseringsoptimister står mot hverandre.

• Esterhazy, Rachelle; Damsa, Crina-Ioana & Nerland, Monika Bærøe (2021). Co-creation of knowledge objects in undergraduate education – a qualitative analytical approach. Full text in Research Archive
• Sadorge, Christopher; Nerland, Monika & Mäkitalo, Åsa (2021). Categorisation work in the design of health information systems. Full text in Research Archive
• Sadorge, Christopher; Nerland, Monika & Mäkitalo, Åsa (2021). Negotiating categories in design work. A study of a team developing a patient information system. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2020). Vurdering av kvalitet i høyere utdanning: tanker om virkemidlene, prosessen og søknadene. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2020). Reconfiguring relations between higher education and work: Knowledge practices and learning in the (post)digital era. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2019). Kvalitetsarbeid i studieprogrammene. Full text in Research Archive
• Damsa, Crina I.; Esterhazy, Rachelle & Nerland, Monika (2019). Analyzing learning through co-creation of knowledge objects in software engineering education. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika Bærøe & Damsa, Crina-Ioana (2019). VET as Lifelong Learning: Engagement With Distributed Knowledge in Software Engineering. In Guile, David & Unwin, Lorna (Ed.), The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training. Wiley-Blackwell. ISSN 9781119098591. p. 395–414. doi: 10.1002/9781119098713. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2019). Kvalitetsarbeid i studieprogrammene: fagene som kontekst for studentaktivisering og kunnskapsintegrasjon. Uniped - Tidsskrift for universitets- og høgskolepedagogikk. ISSN 1500-4538. 42(1), p. 111–117. doi: 10.18261/issn.1893-8981-2019-01-09. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2019). Enhancing student learning in changing knowledge environments: Opportunities and challenges for higher education. Full text in Research Archive
• Esterhazy, Rachelle; Nerland, Monika & Damsa, Crina I. (2019). Course designs that cater for productive feedback. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2018). Kvalitet i høyere utdanning: Muligheter og utfordringer med studentaktiviserende undervisning. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2018). Beyond policy: Conceptualising student-centred learning environments in higher (music) education. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika; Yates, Lyn & Maassen, Peter (2018). Introduction. Higher Education Dynamics. ISSN 1571-0378. 50, p. 1–24. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-72832-2_1. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2018). Professional education and learning as embedded in evolving knowledge fields. Full text in Research Archive
• Elken, Mari; Maassen, Peter; Nerland, Monika; Stensaker, Bjørn & Vabø, Agnete (2018). Sentrale funn og anbefalinger fra QNHE prosjektet. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2018). Contemporary Knowledge Dynamics and Shifting Demands to Professional Expertise. Full text in Research Archive
• Jensen, Karen; Tronsmo, Eli & Nerland, Monika (2018). Changing forms of professionalism: A Qualitative meta-synthesis of teachers' knowledge- sharing practices across three research projects. Full text in Research Archive
• Tronsmo, Eli & Nerland, Monika (2018). The becoming of an object: Analytical resources to studying emerging construction processes in professional work. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2018). "Aktiv læring" / Studentaktiviserende undervisning:Noen implikasjoner for utdanningsfaglig kompetanse og for samspillet mellom emner. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2017). Knowledge practices and relations in professional education: Moving beyond the education-work divide. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2017). Epistemic shifts and transformations in professional expertise. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika & Damsa, Crina I. (2017). Students’ and beginning professionals’ learning with web-based resources in software engineering. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2016). Profesjonskunnskap og epistemiske praksiser i lærerutdanningene: Hvordan kan utdanningene styrke studentenes innvielse i en kunnskapskultur? Full text in Research Archive
• Damsa, Crina I.; Nerland, Monika & Stensaker, Bjørn (2016). Enhancing student learning through ‘student-centered approaches’: What matters for educational quality? Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2016). Profesjonsfellesskap og læring: Er læreryrket i ferd med å bli likere andre profesjoner? Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2015). Professional education as initiation to expert cultures. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2015). Presentasjon av kunnskapsstatus om kvalitet i norsk høyere utdanning. Kunnskapsdepartementet 9. oktober 2015. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika; Damsa, Crina I. & Jensen, Karen (2015). Introducing first-year students to the knowledge cultures of law, engineering and teaching. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2015). Profesjonsutdanning som innvielse i en kunnskapskultur. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika (2014). Utvikling og mestring av kunnskapspraksiser i profesjonene: Vilkår og utfordringer. Full text in Research Archive
• Lange, Thomas de & Nerland, Monika (2014). Mirroring the Practice of Teaching - Exploring Microteaching as a site for Professional Enactments. Full text in Research Archive
• Gherardi, Silvia; Jensen, Karen & Nerland, Monika (2014). What is growing in the shadow of formal organizations? Full text in Research Archive
• Sciuto, Katarina; Winsnes, Sigurd; Nerland, Monika & Hasu, Mervi (2021). Profesjonell agency i digitale arbeidskontekster - En kvalitativ intervjustudie blant ansatte i kommunehelsetjenesten. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Dagens arbeidsliv preges av en stadig økende bruk av komplekse digitale teknologier som griper inn i selve arbeidsutførelsen og arbeidsdelingen. Når bruken av nye teknologier endrer rammevilkårene i arbeidet, skapes det samtidig nye muligheter og hindringer for å ta valg, handle og påvirke handlingskontekstene; ofte omtalt som profesjonell agency. Tidligere forskning har frembragt et godt kunnskapsgrunnlag om hvordan innføringen av nye teknologier og utøvelse av profesjonell agency opptrer og virker inn i organisasjoner hver for seg, men det er behov for å se på hvordan disse fenomenene samspiller og nedfeller seg i konkrete arbeidskontekster. Videre er det behov for mer kunnskap om hvordan ansattes profesjonelle agency utspiller seg ulikt når en beveger seg mellom ulike digitale arbeidskontekster. På bakgrunn av dette tar studien utgangspunkt i følgende problemstilling: Hvordan opplever ansatte i kommunehelsetjenesten muligheter for profesjonell agency når nye teknologier innføres og tas i bruk i organisasjonen? Problemstillingen besvares ved hjelp av de to forskningsspørsmålene: «På hvilke måter opplever ansatte at deres muligheter eller begrensninger for handlingsrom endres med økende bruk av digitale teknologier?» og «på hvilke måter opplever ansatte at handlingsrommet varierer mellom ulike arbeidskontekster?». Det teoretiske rammeverket som benyttes for å undersøke problemstillingen baserer seg på begrepet «digitalisering» for å belyse innføring av nye teknologi utløser sosiotekniske endringer i organisasjonen, og Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, Hökkä og Paloniemis (2013) rammeverk om «profesjonell agency» for å belyse hvordan individets agency oppleves i arbeidsrelaterte omgivelser. Rammeverket tar ikke spesifikt høyde for hvordan profesjonell agency utspiller seg i digitale handlingskontekster, eller hvordan individets bevegelse mellom digitale kontekster har betydning for profesjonelt handlingsrom. Dermed vil rammeverket utvides for å bedre tilpasses studiens problemområde. Denne masteroppgaven inngår i det større NFR-prosjektet, CORPUS, hvis mål er å utvikle ny kunnskap om hvordan digitalisering medfører nye krav til kompetanse og ekspertise i helse-tjenestene. For å undersøke profesjonell agency i digitale arbeidskontekster valgte vi en kvalitativ tilnærming, og gjennomførte en kvalitativ intervjustudie med en fenomenologisk grunninteresse. Datamaterialet ble samlet inn gjennom semi-strukturerte intervju av syv ressurspersoner fra én foregangsbydel for bruk av velferdsteknologi i kommunehelsetjenesten i Oslo. Rekruttering av deltakere til den kvalitative intervjustudien var basert på et strategisk- og tilgjengelighetsutvalg med bakgrunn i masteroppgavens plassering i CORPUS-prosjektet. Ressurspersonene var av empirisk interesse da de har avsatt en del av sin stilling til å arbeide med velferdsteknologi. Det innsamlede datamaterialet ble analysert gjennom en tematisk analyse. Resultatene viser hvordan digitalisering endrer rammevilkårene ressurspersonene arbeider innenfor, og at innføringen og bruken av nye digitale teknologier bidrar til å skape både nye muligheter og begrensninger for utøvelsen av profesjonelt handlingsrom. Mer spesifikt ble det funnet at ressurspersonenes muligheter for handlingsrom hovedsakelig bunner i en effektiv bruk av teknologiene og den omfattende informasjonen de frembringer. Analysene viser at digitaliseringen i helsetjenesten gjør arbeidsprosesser og samarbeidsrelasjoner mer transparente, noe som bidrar til å synliggjøre arenaer og muligheter for profesjonelt handlingsrom. Analysene indikerer videre at endringene i rammevilkårene i bydelen som følger av digitalisering har bidratt til å gjøre ressurspersonene mer proaktive. Dette ved at de nå kan utføre flere arbeidsoppgaver innenfor et bredere område, utføre oppgavene mer effektivt, samt at koordineringen av samarbeid blant de ulike aktørene i tjenesten har blitt forenklet. Samtidig ble det vist at den økende bruken av velferdsteknologi også har skapt begrensninger for ressurspersonenes opplevde og utøvde handlingsrom, som konsekvens av teknologienes kompleksitet. I den sammenheng ble det funnet at teknologiene tidvis legger betydelige beslag på tid og ressurser i tjenesten. Resultatene kan derfor bidra til å understreke viktigheten av digitale kompetanser for å utøve profesjonelt handlingsrom. Funnene i denne masteroppgaven viser videre at ressurspersonenes variasjoner i opplevd og utøvd handlingsrom kan relateres til deres arbeidsoppgaver, tidligere erfaringer og temporale orienteringer. Ansattes mulighet for å integrere digital og faglig kompetanse, samt tilrettelegging for at ansatte kan påvirke hvordan teknologiene formes og brukes lokalt, framstår som viktige betingelser for de ansattes opplevde og utøvde profesjonelle agency.

• Esterhazy, Rachelle; Nerland, Monika & Damsa, Crina I. (2019). Productive feedback practices in higher education. Investigating social and epistemic relations in two undergraduate courses (PhD thesis). Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
• Nerland, Monika & Prøitz, Tine Sophie (2018). Pathways to quality in higher education : Case studies of educational practices in eight courses. NIFU Nordisk institutt for studier av innovasjon, forskning og utdanning. ISSN 9788232703197. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This report is produced in the framework of the project “Quality of Norwegian Higher Education: Pathways, Practices and Performances”, funded through the program Research and Innovation in the Educational Sector (FINNUT), Research Council Norway (RCN). The focus of the study is on exploring quality issues related to the educational provision of higher education. The overarching questions in the project are: What factors and mechanisms are important for realizing the aims of quality work in Norwegian higher education? What is the relationship between structural/systemic and institutional conditions, and educational practices?This report presents findings from one of the sub-projects with focus on educationalpractices. The report presents eight in depth case studies focusing on teaching and learning practices at the course level. These studies were designed to focus on aspects that matter for the quality of education in course design that employ student-centred approaches.

• Damsa, Crina I.; Lange, Thomas de; Elken, Mari; Esterhazy, Rachelle; Fossland, Trine & Frølich, Nicoline [Show all 15 contributors for this article] (2015). Quality in Norwegian Higher Education: A review of research on aspects affecting student learning. NIFU Nordisk institutt for studier av innovasjon, forskning og utdanning. ISSN 9788232701278. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This report is produced in the framework of the project “Quality of Norwegian Higher Education: Pathways, Practices and Performances”, funded through the program Research and Innovation in the Educational Sector (FINNUT), Research Council Norway (RCN). The focus of the study is on exploring quality issues related to the educational provision of higher education. The overarching questions in the project are: What factors and mechanisms are important for realizing the aims of quality work in Norwegian higher education? What is the relationship between structural/systemic and institutional conditions, and educational practices? In this first report from the project, the aim is to position the study with respect to the international research-based literature in this area, and to identify factors and mechanisms indicated by the relevant literature as important contributors to the enhancement of quality in higher education. A second aim is to identify knowledge gaps in the existing literature.

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