Shared sense-making is suggested to be key for curriculum reform. "Shared sense-making" entails constructing a collective understanding of the meaning for reform, its significance and its implications for schools, through dialogue and negotiation across the levels of the educational system. This study explored changes in hands-on…

The post-doctoral phase is characterized by a high level of competition and even a risk of unemployment due to the increasing number of PhDs. This study explores the function of social support or lack of it in post PhD researchers' engaging and disengaging experiences from the beginning of their careers as researchers. The data were collected from…

Doctoral studies are about learning to create new knowledge and to become a researcher. Yet surprisingly little is known about the individual learning patterns of doctoral students. The study aims to explore learning patterns among natural science doctoral students. The participants included 19 doctoral students from a top-level natural science…

Curriculum reform that has an effect on the everyday practices in schools always entails translation of new ideas into new educational practices. This takes place primarily through shared sense making. However, our understanding of the different ways in which shared sense making is carried out is still scarce. In Finland, the district level plays…

Studying to become a teacher is a highly emotional experience. Nevertheless, little is known about emotional patterns and emotional change. The aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of student teachers' academic emotions by exploring patterns of emotions experienced in emotionally loaded episodes. A total of 19 primary school student…

The aim of this study is to gain better understanding of the dynamics of the social support system adopted in teacher education and its significance for the student teachers' experienced well-being. The focus was on exploring the extent to which empowering "emotional," "informational" or "instrumental" support is…

A significant body of evidence shows that the goals of educational reforms are seldom fully achieved. Some research suggests that the problem lies in state-level curriculum reform work that lacks a sufficient understanding of the educational reality. However, views and perceptions among the central architects of the reforms have not been…

Self- and co-regulation are central elements in skillful student-teacher learning. Studies have confirmed the interrelation between positive academic emotions and student engagement in self-regulated learning. There are also indicators of student-teachers experiencing co-regulative learning activities as highly significant. Yet, we know…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate knowledge-creating agency by examining doctoral students' accounts of their pursuits, using structured interviews. We examined all of the talk apparently related to agency of 13 doctoral students taking part in collective doctoral training in two, highly regarded Finnish research communities…

Although supervision has been identified as one of the central determinants of the doctoral experience, there is still an insufficient understanding of the ways in which supervisors and doctoral students perceive supervisory activities. The study focuses on exploring the fit between doctoral students' and supervisors' perceptions of who are…

This study explores strategies students use to construct their academic engagement in the social environment of school. The study is based on group interview data collected from 161 sixth (78) and eighth (83) grade students. Students reflected both engaging and disengaging episodes. Data were content analysed. The results show that students…

Little is known about what inspires students to be involved in their doctoral process and stay persistent when facing challenges. This study explored the nature of students' engagement in the doctoral work. Altogether, 21 behavioural sciences doctoral students from one top-level research community were interviewed. The interview data were…

The literature emphasizes the importance of integrating doctoral students into scholarly communities and practices at the very beginning of their studies. Although the importance of student participation in a scholarly community has been recognized empirical evidence concerning the quality of participation that promotes such engagement is scarce.…