A landscape of practice approach to enhance employability: insights from domestic and international postgraduates
A landscape of practice approach to enhance employability: insights from domestic and international postgraduates
Purpose: Drawing on a theoretical framework of sustainable career ecosystem theory, our paper aims to consider how domestic and international postgraduates can enhance their employability through participation in a landscape of practice. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed an exploratory, longitudinal case study design to capture students' lived experiences on an 18-month Master of Professional Practice course at a higher education institution in New Zealand. The data collection procedure involved field note observations (months 1–4), a focus group (month 13) and narrative frames (months 16–18). The sample was domestic students from New Zealand (n = 2) and international students from Asia (n = 5). Findings: One’s participation in multiple communities of practice represents their landscape of practice and a commitment to lifewide learning. Through participation in various communities of practice, domestic and international students can enhance their employability in three ways: (1) boundary encounters to develop social capital, (2) transcending contexts to enhance cultural capital, and (3) acknowledging the development of psychological capital and career agency. Originality/value: Our work offers one of the earliest empirical validations of sustainable career ecosystem theory. Expressly, communities of practice represent various contexts whereby employability capital is developed over time. Additionally, the postgraduate students themselves are portrayed as interconnected and interdependent actors, presenting a novel framing of such dependencies at the micro-level of the ecosystem. The practical implications come from informing universities of the value of a landscape of practice to enhance the employability of domestic and international students in preparation for sustainable careers and to promote the sustainability of the career ecosystem.
Career ecosystem, Community of practice, Landscape of practice, Lifewide learning, Sustainable career
Soltani, Behnam
8035dbc4-fc3c-43f9-9fad-fb5c8b0df2fa
Donald, William E.
0b3cb4ca-8ed9-4a5f-9c10-359923469eec
Soltani, Behnam
8035dbc4-fc3c-43f9-9fad-fb5c8b0df2fa
Donald, William E.
0b3cb4ca-8ed9-4a5f-9c10-359923469eec
Soltani, Behnam and Donald, William E.
(2024)
A landscape of practice approach to enhance employability: insights from domestic and international postgraduates.
Higher Education Skills and Work Based Learning.
(doi:10.1108/HESWBL-11-2023-0320).
Abstract
Purpose: Drawing on a theoretical framework of sustainable career ecosystem theory, our paper aims to consider how domestic and international postgraduates can enhance their employability through participation in a landscape of practice. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed an exploratory, longitudinal case study design to capture students' lived experiences on an 18-month Master of Professional Practice course at a higher education institution in New Zealand. The data collection procedure involved field note observations (months 1–4), a focus group (month 13) and narrative frames (months 16–18). The sample was domestic students from New Zealand (n = 2) and international students from Asia (n = 5). Findings: One’s participation in multiple communities of practice represents their landscape of practice and a commitment to lifewide learning. Through participation in various communities of practice, domestic and international students can enhance their employability in three ways: (1) boundary encounters to develop social capital, (2) transcending contexts to enhance cultural capital, and (3) acknowledging the development of psychological capital and career agency. Originality/value: Our work offers one of the earliest empirical validations of sustainable career ecosystem theory. Expressly, communities of practice represent various contexts whereby employability capital is developed over time. Additionally, the postgraduate students themselves are portrayed as interconnected and interdependent actors, presenting a novel framing of such dependencies at the micro-level of the ecosystem. The practical implications come from informing universities of the value of a landscape of practice to enhance the employability of domestic and international students in preparation for sustainable careers and to promote the sustainability of the career ecosystem.
Text
AAM Soltani & Donald (2024)
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 28 March 2024
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 April 2024
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Keywords:
Career ecosystem, Community of practice, Landscape of practice, Lifewide learning, Sustainable career
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 488818
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488818
ISSN: 2042-3896
PURE UUID: c3997ad5-01b5-4a7e-9c63-420db92ffb30
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Date deposited: 05 Apr 2024 16:45
Last modified: 02 May 2024 02:06
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Contributors
Author:
Behnam Soltani
Author:
William E. Donald
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