Work Placements, Internships & Applied Social Research

Jackie Carter

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781529737752
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Investigación y metodología de las ciencias sociales

Showcasing how you can use a work placement to develop your research and professional skills, this warm and personable book demonstrates how you can transfer and grow skills from your academic training to the workplace and maximise the benefits of learning by doing.

The book also:

·Helps you confidently navigate the entire internship process, providing reassuring guidance about key steps such as applying and interviewing for placements

·Highlights the importance of practicing reflective learning and encourages you to become a reflective researcher

·Empowers you to make an internship work for you, giving you key employability and workplace skills.

Drawing on a range of real student voices, this pragmatic guide helps you make the most of the opportunities offered by a work placement and shows how the skills you learn will help you thrive in academia and beyond.

1 Experiential learning and applied research

Learning objectives

In this chapter you will:

• Learn what experiential learning is
• Be introduced to some theories of work-placed learning
• Learn what applied research and applied social research are and be shown two case study examples

‘Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.’

Xun Kuang (date unknown), translated by Dubs (1928: 113)

Overview

Chapter 1 sets the context for the book. Think of it as a ‘What is?’ chapter. Chapter 2 will then cover the ‘Why?’ question and Chapters 3 to 9 will be ‘How to’ guides.

When I started developing the internship programme that provided the impetus for this book there were very few examples, at least in the UK, of similar initiatives that were focused on developing applied research skills in the humanities and social sciences. Shortly after my work placement programme started in 2014 many other universities asked me to help them set up their own, and I presented widely on the successes we had experienced, reflected on some of the areas that required improvement, as well as thought hard about what didn’t work (and dropped those parts). Within three years I had presented nationally and internationally at a large number of educational and research methods conferences, written an academic paper on the pedagogy of work placements, and started the proposal for this book. The contribution I discovered I was making to the field of research methods education was in speaking about ‘learning by doing’, and specifically in the application of research skills developed in the classroom and applied in the workplace. My programme was designed for undergraduate students to undertake data-driven, applied social research projects, but it has far wider applicability in research methods training more generally, and across all educational levels. My academic and scholarly contribution was recognised through a professorship in learning, teaching and scholarship in 2017, and then at national level in 2020 when I was awarded a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship. As a self-reflective practitioner and a teacher I am well placed to be capturing my experience and sharing it with you in this book.

As our programme developed and expanded it was clear to me, and others, that work-placed learning was becoming more prevalent in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I was so busy setting up and running the programme at my university, organising student paid summer internships and observing the subsequent success of those who undertook these in research organisations, that I slightly neglected the theory underpinning the approach I was taking. I too was learning by doing, and reflecting on my own as well as my students’ learning. A smart student who was preparing for her work placement asked me about the theory behind experiential learning. She’s right – it’s important to know this. This chapter is my (belated) response to her, and she features in a cameo in a later chapter (thank you Grace).

This chapter, then, sets out what experiential learning and applied social research are. The purpose is to introduce you to sources if you are interested in reading about the theory behind learning in the workplace in more depth, to provide some introductory definitions, and to give you examples of applied social research. The referenced material will provide you with a starting point, and in so doing show how putting research into practice is a valuable pursuit. In the Three Things You Can Do Next section at the end of the chapter you will be invited to explore these readings further.

Chapter 2 will then focus on the benefits and beneficiaries of work-placed learning in the applied social sciences. The remaining chapters in the book will draw on these two chapters, and provide ‘how to’ practical information to get you started on your journey to learning by doing. The final chapter looks to the future.

What is experiential learning?

I would not be writing this book if I did not believe that experiential learning matters. I want to share my observations of how your learning can be transformed by situating it in a real-world, practical, working environment. Before doing so it is important to be clear what I mean by the phrase ‘experiential learning’, and to do that I introduce you to some of the literature that I think is relevant to setting this broader context.

An article by Jay Roberts, editor of the Journal of Experiential Education, describes experiential learning in the early twenty-first century as follows, explaining how the term has most often been used to describe learning that takes place outside of the classroom (and in many cases in the outdoors). I like Roberts’ (2018: 6) summary:

Experience, in Latin, comes from expereri, which means to experiment, test, or risk. It is time the field tested its limits and risked its identity to stretch to new possibilities. As experiential learning both metaphorically and literally comes ‘in from the outside’ in higher education, there will be exciting new opportunities for scholarship and research. From new curricular–co-curricular integrations, to internship programs, to active and collaborative learning in the classroom, to project and problem-based learning, there are a whole host of pedagogical approaches being developed on college and university campuses across the world. Each of these presents opportunities for study and research.

Roberts is right. There is an increasing number of Higher Education institutions that recognise the value of experiential learning, i.e. learning that takes place outside of the classroom. There is also no doubt, in my experience, that showing you have put your academic learning into practice will help you find and secure a future career. At the very least having work-placed experience enables you to speak about this at interview, but much more than that it can open doors to professional networks, provide inspiration for careers you have never even thought about, and give you the confidence to develop your analytical and professional skills and knowledge. This book is full of such examples with Chapters 3 to 9 featuring case studies from many students showing you how they accomplished a diverse range of experiences.

Careers services at universities place great store in helping learners find work placement opportunities. Look at any careers website (such as Prospects in the UK, which dedicates a whole section of its site to jobs and work experience, or GradAustralia, which has a section on internships), or sign up to LinkedIn (the social networking platform for professionals), and you will see that there is demand for graduates who can show they have prior applied experience. (A fuller list of such websites is given in Table 1.1.)

Table 1.1

As Roberts says, internships are part of the experiential learning landscape. As this book focuses on work-placed learning, I want to delve a little deeper into why this is a smart thing for you, as a social-scientist-in-training, to consider doing.

Work-placed learning

You may have already done some work-placed learning. In the UK it is very common to have a week during the school year where you get to spend time working in an office or volunteering. Jones et al. (2016) analysed testimonies from 488 young British adults (aged 18–24) who had previously undertaken a work placement (some were still in school, others had left and were now in further study). The authors concluded that whilst some of these learners had benefited from a work-placed experience, the benefits to students differed depending on their socioeconomic background, particularly affecting those from less-advantaged backgrounds. The authors found that:

… benefits accumulate exponentially for some young people while leaving others increasingly detached from the capitals that are most important for labour market success.

Jones et al. (2016: 834)

The human, social and cultural capitals they refer to draw on the work of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1986). More explicitly their work, based on a poll undertaken by YouGov in 2011, was able to investigate the extent to which nearly 200 (of 1100) respondents commented qualitatively on their former work-placed experiences whilst still at high school. They found that the majority of these 200 noted that the work experience helped boost their confidence and become more self-assured (cultural capital). In contrast only about one-third reported that making personal contacts (social capital) and developing evidence of application of skills (human capital) emerged from the opportunity. Nonetheless, all three capitals were present from those who commented, and hence it would seem sensible to pursue this outcome in Higher Education through work-placed learning. I will return to the benefits of developing these capitals in Chapter 2, but for now, notwithstanding the relatively small numbers of respondents polled, you can see that even at high school applied learning can be a worthwhile experience.

The Gatsby Career Benchmarks

It’s never too early to start signalling potential careers. Schools are a good place to begin exploring how career guidance starts. A UK report published in 2017 incorporated eight benchmarks, known as the Gatsby Career Benchmarks, to support good careers guidance in schools. Published by the Department for Education in the UK, the report draws on international work and good practice. The career guidance strategy states under Benchmark 6, Experiences of workplace:

Every pupil should have first-hand experiences of the workplace through work visits, work shadowing and/or work experience to help their exploration of career opportunities, and expand their networks.

Gatsby (2017: 16)

Career guidance in schools is regarded as a vehicle for social justice, recognising that young people who lack social capital or careers support at home are disadvantaged compared to their peers who can access this support (Cullinane and Montecute, 2017: 23). In the light of research undertaken, especially where there are differential outcomes according to socioeconomic backgrounds, it is encouraging to see government take careers guidance and work-placed learning seriously.

There are many further published examples of work-placed learning internationally. The SAGE Handbook of Workplace Learning (Malloch et al., 2011) covers, in 34 academic papers, theory, research and practice, and issues and futures. Predominantly these papers focus on post-16 education. Dipping into this book alone shows the wealth of activities that work-placed learning addresses, and it is worth exploring a few of these now in setting the context for this book.

In Nicholas Allix’s chapter on ‘Knowledge and workplace learning’, he concludes:

… learning is a process that is continuous and lifelong, and is not confined to learning in the academy or the workplace, but is something that occurs in all contexts in which humans have to live or to survive … lifelong, and workplace learning, presents educators … with social roles of significance and consequence for both individual and social wellbeing.

Allix (2011: 144)

This chimes well with the capitals introduced above. Allix goes on to say that in order to have an impact on learners and provide the best opportunities for them to learn from and apply their knowledge and skills in the workplace, educators need to develop opportunities for this type of learning to occur. He lists ways of doing this including internships, mentoring arrangements, establishing and developing communities of practice and creating work teams to problem-solve. In this book you will find all of these and whilst I focus on the first of these as a mechanism for enabling work-placed learning, the others listed by Allix occur as a direct result of undertaking an internship or work placement, as you will see.

Theories of work-placed learning

Different theories underpin learning, and likewise learning in the workplace. Section 1, Chapters 1 to 11 of The SAGE Handbook of Workplace Learning (2011) provides a comprehensive overview of different learning theories and how they pertain to workplace learning. This chapter cannot do justice to all of these, but one I think particularly resonates with the theme of this book is what Engestrom calls expansive learning (2011). This theory, which he develops building on previous scholars, argues that as the world develops technologically, organisations need better ways of working to use new knowledge. In Engestrom’s words:

The design of the new activity (externalization) and the acquisition of the knowledge and skills it requires (internalization) are increasingly intertwined. In expansive learning activity they merge.

Engestrom (2011: 88)

I like this notion of expansive learning. It describes what I have witnessed over the course of my work in this area. It also connotes that learning needs to keep expanding and growing if we are to adapt to the challenges of the twenty-first century as the use of increasing volumes of data and evidence demand better understanding and application of research methods and skills.

Another experiential learning theory relevant to work placements and internships is that which describes workplace learning as emergent. In his chapter on ‘Theories of workplace learning’, Hager highlights this approach as the next area of research. He says:

… learning is emergent from its context in unanticipated and unpredictable ways. Thus context transforms learning in an ongoing creative process.

Hager (2011: 27)

This captures the importance of the context of the learning, and as you will see throughout this book, context matters. All the work-placed learning I have witnessed, and the testimonies provided by interns and employers, exemplify this. In my experience, when learning research methods, social science students are rarely interested in, for example, data per se, or narratives divorced from their context, but they are enormously motivated by trying to better understand their subject. Whether criminology, politics, sociology, economics or business students, they are eager to learn how to systematically explore their research questions. And as they learn the theories that underpin their discipline, they want to explore how these theories can be tested in practice, and possibly to see how new theories can emerge. Experiential, expansive and emergent learning theories help explain how novice researchers contextualise their understanding by appealing to the substantive nature of their discipline. In other words, the research question drives the learning, and students are taught res...