Professional knowledge in education and health (PROFKNOW)

The PROFKNOW project received £1 million in funding from the European Union Sixth Framework Programme and sought to compare professional work and life in different European contexts within and between the professions of teaching and nursing.

The research developed a view of professional knowledge in the fields of teaching and nursing as a basis for the development of organisational, professional and educational strategies by the professions as well as administrators and policymakers.

Professor Ivor Goodson led on this project for the University of Brighton and collaborated with seven other universities in Europe. The work described, analysed and evaluated current restructuring in education and health in different parts of Europe from the point of view of teachers and nurses and their experiences from their interaction with clients. On the basis of the research, a conceptual framework for analyses of professional knowledge in restructuring organisations was presented.

This study combined two kinds of narrative research:

> a study of the systemic narratives produced by governments who are restructuring educational systems
> the life history narratives of professionals working within those systems and their perspectives on ongoing restructuring.

The overarching ambition with the PROFKNOW project was to understand knowledge at work among professional actors situated between the state on one side and the citizens on the other side. This is a way to consider opportunities and constraints for change as well as a means to capture issues of social cohesion and integration in Europe. In our studies, we focused on professional actors – their perspectives on ongoing work life transitions and ways of dealing with ongoing changes. Given this focus, studies at the University of Brighton were built on a design of national case studies, life histories and ethnographies as well as surveys to samples of teaching and nurses. The team worked within the contexts of Northern (Finland and Sweden), Southern (Greece, Portugal and Spain) as well the Western (England and Ireland) European welfare states with their different trajectories, traditions, reforms and policies.

The aims of this research project were:

> To present comparisons of professional work and life in different European contexts within and between the professions of teaching and nursing
> To achieve a more developed view of professional knowledge in the fields of teaching and nursing as a basis for the development of organisational, professional and educational strategies by the professions as well as administrators and policy makers
> To describe, analyse and evaluate current restructuring in education and health in different parts of Europe from the point of view of teachers and nurses and their experiences from their interaction with clients
> To present a conceptual framework for analyses of professional knowledge in restructuring organisations.

The study looked at how European welfare institutions such as education and healthcare were restructuring their organisations in terms of decentralisation, deregulation and privatisation. The project found that professional positions and demands on professional competencies in these institutions were in transition.

At the same time European societies were changing in different ways; in terms of a knowledge-based society as well as in demographic and cultural changes. It looked at how professionals such as teachers and nurses were meeting such changes in their work with students and clients.

Considering the focus and the combination of research approaches in the PROFKNOW project, it has significant potential impact concerning issues of transitions into a knowledge-based society in three different ways, by:

> providing a sound knowledge base for the management of this transition in important sections of European welfare states
> providing data for international comparisons concerning vital aspects of work and life in Europe, such as social cohesion, gender and intergenerational relations, as well as quality of life
> dealing with changes in notions of expertise and professional knowledge over time in a way that is relevant for the education and lifelong learning of welfare state professions.

Great success was achieved in terms of dissemination and recognition. The findings from the PROFKNOW project have been widely disseminated through published journal articles and two definitive professional education books. The research team presented findings at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Dublin, Ireland (2005) and Ghent, Belgium (2007).

During this project, Professor Ivor Goodson was presented with the inaugural Michael Huberman Award for Outstanding Scholarship on the Lives of Teachers by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Professor Ivor Goodson was also give an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Gothenburg and made a Laureate of the Phi Delta Kappan Society in the USA.