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Career focused reflection and personal development in higher education : a longitudinal investigation into internship blog writing
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Silva-Banks, Sarah (2022) Career focused reflection and personal development in higher education : a longitudinal investigation into internship blog writing. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3883357
Abstract
This study focused on a summer Internship programme operated by the Careers and Skills department in a university. The main data set was the interns’ reflective blogs written with the guidance of a learning and development plan over the duration of their participation in the Internship. The data set covered three iterations over a three year period. Through the use of genre analysis, qualitative content analysis and online email interviews it has explored the following research questions:
1. How are reflection and personal development portrayed through the process of participation in an Internship programme within a higher education careers setting?
2. How does the reflective writing produced for a higher education Internship evolve through this research project and how does the technology affect this?
3. What do the above two questions tell us about career-focused reflection as a genre?
This research highlighted how the employability agenda in HEIs and the focus on what skills a graduate must possess (Cook, 2006), has become the centre point of reflective writing in this careers context. Students are being guided to focus on skills and strengths they are developing and how these transfer to the workplace (Bridgstock 2009; Small, Shacklock and Marchant, 2018; Fotiadou, 2020). They are being encouraged to use reflective writing to do so, so that they will be successful in articulating these traits to prospective employers. The key findings were that through the provision of frameworks, features of reflective writing and Personal Development Planning in an HE careers context were seen in the data set. Analysis showed that socially constructed reflection is possible if the appropriate framework is put in place. This included time to reflect and document those reflections, paired with time to consider this face to face with a careers mentor. This scaffolding ensured that the interns engaged with the process of reflection, rather than the production of a final product. Furthermore, the use of ePortfolios and Virtual Learning Environments allowed for a very dialogical type of reflection, something that is unique to using web 2.0 technologies for this purpose.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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| Subjects: | L Education > LB Theory and practice of education L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education L Education > LC Special aspects of education P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Internship programs, Education, Higher -- Study and teaching (Internship), Blogs, Critical thinking, Reflective learning | ||||
| Official Date: | May 2022 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
| Theses Department: | Centre for Applied Linguistics | ||||
| Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
| Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
| Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Wharton, Sue ; Mann, Steve, 1960- | ||||
| Sponsors: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) | ||||
| Format of File: | |||||
| Extent: | 256 pages : colour illustration | ||||
| Language: | eng |
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