Page 168 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Cooperation Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 168
elop relational expertise to be conducted and evaluated. Based on their
findings, conclusions on how to develop relational expertise have been de-
veloped and are presented below.
The TLRP established that the existing professional training does not
equip practitioners with the tools and knowledge they need to work suc-
cessfully outside of their established organisational practices. To work
successfully in inter-professional teams for preventing social exclusion,
practitioners need to acquire new forms of expertise. As their working en-
vironment changed from more institutionalised forms towards more coop-
erative ones under the Children Act 2004 initiative, they learned to become
more responsive to all actors involved, present their purpose and be open to
the ideas and alternatives of others, they learned they are allowed (to some
extent) to bend the rules to meet the versatile requirements of situations
and that they have to adapt existing materials, conceptual tools and devel-
op processes for sharing knowledge since the old ones are outdated. But,
most importantly, from the relational perspective, practitioners learned to
identify their own values, develop fluency about the implications of a mul-
ti-agency environment for them, and learned how their expertise can con-
tribute to their ability to question and enhance their practice in relation to
other professionals. All of this learning emerged naturally as a by-product
of the cross-boundary cooperation among the practitioners in this new-
ly formed working environment, and can be used to develop tools to de-
velop relational expertise among practitioners. Moreover, through various
workshops the TLRP also identified key measures to adopt to develop this
concept. In these sessions, professionals were confronted with contradic-
tions in their everyday understandings of practice through an analysis of
data researchers had gathered from them. The aim of the sessions was to
address the challenges of multi-agency professional learning by identify-
ing areas where a need to change the work practices arose. Those challeng-
es could also be resolved by suggesting ways to re-conceptualise the ef-
forts and resources professionals brought to bear concerning these tasks.
Later on, through various sessions the research group established that re-
lational expertise can also be developed by encouraging professionals to
think about how to develop their working practices, about structural ten-
sions and contradictions in their ongoing practice, and whether there are
any new forms of practice that could support innovation in multi-agen-
cy working. According to that, relational expertise can also be developed
by re-conceptualising the tasks and resources to overcome the challenges.
168
findings, conclusions on how to develop relational expertise have been de-
veloped and are presented below.
The TLRP established that the existing professional training does not
equip practitioners with the tools and knowledge they need to work suc-
cessfully outside of their established organisational practices. To work
successfully in inter-professional teams for preventing social exclusion,
practitioners need to acquire new forms of expertise. As their working en-
vironment changed from more institutionalised forms towards more coop-
erative ones under the Children Act 2004 initiative, they learned to become
more responsive to all actors involved, present their purpose and be open to
the ideas and alternatives of others, they learned they are allowed (to some
extent) to bend the rules to meet the versatile requirements of situations
and that they have to adapt existing materials, conceptual tools and devel-
op processes for sharing knowledge since the old ones are outdated. But,
most importantly, from the relational perspective, practitioners learned to
identify their own values, develop fluency about the implications of a mul-
ti-agency environment for them, and learned how their expertise can con-
tribute to their ability to question and enhance their practice in relation to
other professionals. All of this learning emerged naturally as a by-product
of the cross-boundary cooperation among the practitioners in this new-
ly formed working environment, and can be used to develop tools to de-
velop relational expertise among practitioners. Moreover, through various
workshops the TLRP also identified key measures to adopt to develop this
concept. In these sessions, professionals were confronted with contradic-
tions in their everyday understandings of practice through an analysis of
data researchers had gathered from them. The aim of the sessions was to
address the challenges of multi-agency professional learning by identify-
ing areas where a need to change the work practices arose. Those challeng-
es could also be resolved by suggesting ways to re-conceptualise the ef-
forts and resources professionals brought to bear concerning these tasks.
Later on, through various sessions the research group established that re-
lational expertise can also be developed by encouraging professionals to
think about how to develop their working practices, about structural ten-
sions and contradictions in their ongoing practice, and whether there are
any new forms of practice that could support innovation in multi-agen-
cy working. According to that, relational expertise can also be developed
by re-conceptualising the tasks and resources to overcome the challenges.
168
