Academics’ learning in times of change: a change laboratory approach

Abstract

Academic work in universities is in flux with staff increasingly being confronted with multiple and conflicting roles, often leading to academics experiencing feelings of fragmentation and despair. Though much has been written about the changing nature of academic work and its effects on the academic workforce, there has been less exploration of how academics can be assisted in understanding and collaboratively resolving their difficulties. In this article the sequential and structured cycles of learning within three academic Change Laboratories are described and compared with reference to the main conflicts arising and their potential resolutions. The article then proposes that the Activity Theory-inspired Change Laboratory can assist academics in systematically learning about and potentially resolving difficulties in working life. The site of the study is the recently formed University of Technology sector in which problems may be further exacerbated as staff have to align their prior vocational identities with those of a more traditional university