Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education
Date of this Version
2013
Document Type
Article
Citation
To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development (2013) 32
doi: 10.3998/tia.17063888.0032.005
Abstract
Faculty developers must often mediate conflicts resulting from differences between seemingly mutually exclusive cultures that university technolo gists and university teachers inhabit. Activity theory embraces workplace conflict as normal and as contributing to organizing health and adapta tion, in contrast to a functionalist approach that focuses on how to maintain system equilibrium. Engestrom’s (1987) interpretation of activity theory provides a theoretically informed framework for under standing different forms of human activity, mediated by culturally mol ded rules, values, and division of labor, without suffering from the polarizing effects of an us-versus-them approach.
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Higher Education Commons, Higher Education Administration Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Other Education Commons
Comments
License: CC BY-NC-ND